The Permanent Secretary, Ecological Project Office, Malam Shehu Ibrahim, mni has reiterated that the Ecological Project Office (EPO) will continue to efficiently utilize available resources to sustain the Federal Government’s policy drive to reduce the ecological challenges in the country,
Malam Ibrahim stated this during the 2022 EPO Media Interactive Session, Wednesday December 14, 2022 in Abuja. He said he will continue to focus on the “facilitation of quality, timely, efficient and effective implementation of all Mr. President’s approved projects nationwide, ensure equitable distribution of approved ecological projects across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, maintenance of a reliable data on ecological challenges and interventions nationwide and ensure effective supervision, monitoring and evaluation of all approved ecological projects nationwide”.
Malam Shehu Ibrahim, mni EPO Permanent Secretary, EPO Directors and the Media Correspondents
“Gentlemen of the Press, my guiding vision together with the management is to reduce to the barest minimum, the ecological challenges across the nation through efficient and effective utilization of available resources”.
The Permanent Secretary commiserated with Nigerians on the recent devastating flood that led to the loss of lives, livelihood and property and said, “the unfortunate incident which had global dimension is to say the least a sad chapter in the nation’s history”. He however expressed optimism that the proactive measure taken by the Federal Government in setting up a “Presidential Committee for the Development of a Comprehensive Plan of Action for the Prevention of Flood Disasters in Nigeria”, will proffer recommendation on taming the menace.
Let me emphasise here that EPO is resolute in driving the federal government’s policy on ecological intervention and sustainability.It is our hope that as funding improves, we would be able to respond more in mitigating the ecological challenges of affected communities across the country”.
Malam Shehu explained that the Ecological Project Office “does not have budgetary allocation but operates with the Federal Government’s 1% share alongside four other related agencies which include: National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) – 20%, National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) – 5%, North-East Development Commission (NEDC) – 10%, and the Nigeria Agriculture and Land Development Agency (NALDA) – 10%. Ecological Project Office is funded from the balance of the 55% of the share of the Ecological Fund”.
He further said, “it is also important to note that the ecological fund is not domiciled at EPO but rather at the Federal Ministry of Finance and is not exclusive to the Federal Government alone. In the same vein, States and Local Governments get their share directly from the Federal Ministry of Finance”, he explained.
The Permanent Secretary said the office is also exploring ways of partnering with the States and Local Governments so that their own share of the funding would be made more visible to aid in executing more projects particularly in their domains. In addition, he said EPO will also seek partnership with the private sector to promote Community Social Responsibility for increased intervention.
He commended the Media for being part of EPO success story through prompt reporting of Its activities and programmes over time and urged them to continue to use their various media outfits to sensitise Nigerians and highlight the achievements of Mr President in addressing the ecological challenges in the country.
In his earlier remarks, the Director Special Duties, in the Office, Mr Yakubu Habu, stated that the year 2022 Media Interactive Session with the media unique because a lot of our citizens desire to know more about EPO’s mandate. He further said that the meeting is apt and timely considering what happened recently in the last season.
Present at the event also were: Director, Soil Erosion and Flood Control, Mr Abubakar Takuma; Director, Finance & Accounts, Mrs Olabisi Ayoola, Director, Drought Decertification and Coastal Zone Management, Mr Haruna Bello, Director, Procurement, Abdullahi Mohammed; Director, Internal Audit, Mr Geoffrey Ilo and other management staff of EPO.
Amala Obegolu
Principal Information Officer
For: Deputy Director/Head, Press & PR
