Protocol:
I am extremely delighted to witness todays very significant event of the High-Level National Workshop on Disaster Risk Financing Organized by The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Collaboration with Africa Risk Capacity.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are aware Nigeria just like several other countries of the world is impacted by both nature and human induced disaster with attendant loss of lives, human displacement, destruction of means of livelihoods and widespread environmental dislocation. It is on record that, growing intensity and rate of occurrence of disasters in Nigeria has become quite significant and alarming and has escalated the risk profile of the country and humanitarian dashboard of the country.
Annual floods, windstorms, ocean surge coupled with recurrent fire outbreaks, building collapse, boat mishaps, insurgency, resource-based conflicts amongst others have compelled governments at all levels to invest huge resources in emergency relief and post disaster recovery interventions. Over the years government has committed huge amount of funds towards emergency relief and recovery interventions for person impacted by both sudden onset and protracted disaster events.
During the 2024 rainy season, the incident dashboard of the NEMA Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) indicated that 217 Local Government Areas in 34 State of Nigeria are affected by flood disaster. A total of 1,373,699 persons were affected by the floods while 740,734 are displaced in addition to 321 recorded mortalities. Furthermore, a record 2,854 persons suffered various degrees of injuries with thousands of hectares of cultivated farmlands either washed away or completely inundated by flood waters.
In Nigeria, the situation has become more complex with the protracted insurgency, banditry and communal conflicts in some states of the federation. This has made it imperative for NEMA to explore risk financing options that will guarantee early recovery and business continuity in the aftermath of socio-economic dislocations a result of disasters. It our firm belief that this paradigm shift has become more imperative in the face of dwindling resources for disaster recovery in addition to other equally important and yet competing demands on government.
To facilitate today’s national workshop, we held series of meeting with the African Reinsurance Cooperation (Africa Re), the UNDP and other partners to explore and bring to fore risk financing as a critical component of disaster risk reduction. By transferring risk, individuals, businesses, and governments can reduce their financial exposure to disasters. Risk transfer guarantees availability of resources for early recovery and building back better in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction in line with the Nigeria National Disaster Recovery Plan (NDRP) and priority 4 of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to state that risk transfer is not without its challenges. In many developing countries including here in Nigeria, the uptake of insurance and other risk transfer mechanisms is limited. This can be due to a range of factors, including lack of awareness of benefits of risk transfer and prohibitively expensive insurance premiums which can be beyond the capacities of many individuals and businesses, particularly in low-income communities.
I am very confident that given the array of experts from government and development partners, the insurance industry, disaster managers, the academia and the media amongst many others assembled in this workshop, we shall be able to address the challenges that limit the uptake of risk transfer mechanisms. Participants are therefore expected to bring to bear their vast experiences and expertise to mainstream insurance as a veritable tool for disaster recovery and sustainable development in Nigeria.
For us at NEMA we are always ready to avail the insurance industry our damage and loss assessment reports including historic data on disaster losses across Nigeria to help drive this laudable risk transfer initiative. I thank and appreciate Africa Re, distinguished participants and members of the press for being part of this very significant and timely workshop. I thank all those individuals that worked tirelessly to ensure the successful convening of this workshop.
Thank you.
