Last updated on September 3rd, 2023 at 09:25 pm
Who is the incumbent Minister of Humanitarian Affairs?
Dr Betta Edu is Nigeria’s new Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. She was the former Commissioner of Health in Cross River. She succeeds Mrs. Sadiya Farouq.
Creation of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs
President Muhammadu Buhari established the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development (FMHDS) on August 21, 2019.
The name of the Ministry was modified by the administration of President Bola Tinubu a few days after the assumption of office. It is now known as the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. The restructured ministry is now promising to have Humanitarian Hubs in all 774 local areas across the country.
The creation of FMHDS was one of the ways to address some of the humanitarian challenges confronting millions of Nigerians either displaced by Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast or those faced by natural disasters like floods in other parts of the country.
As such, FMHDS came into being with the mandate to design humanitarian policies and work out quick plans to provide effective coordination of National and International humanitarian interventions in emergency periods.
On commencement, six agencies were brought under the new ministry for coordination and effective management while the pioneer minister of FMHDS is Mrs. Sadiya Farouq, who was managing the agencies that are under the new ministry.
The ministry is the newest in the history of Nigerian since it gained Independence in 1960 with the mandate to coordinate all humanitarian affairs in Nigeria.
It was created by the APC-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 in order to address the urgent need of millions of Nigerians who are living in extreme poverty within and other neighbouring African countries.
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development is headed by a vibrant, bold, strategic, beautiful, and result-oriented Zamfara lady Mrs. Sadiya Farouq.
On Monday, October 28, 2019, she was able to tell Nigerians and the rest of the World that almost half number of Nigeria’s population live in abject poverty.
She said 90 million of Nigerians live in extreme poverty, it was the first time a serving minister came out to reveal the real number of Nigerians who live in poverty when he appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development to defend the ministry’s 2020 budget proposal.
The disaster level in Nigeria culminated into the creation of the ministry by President Muhammadu Buhari and moved some agencies under it.
The multi-billion naira SIP is one of the programme that was moved under the supervision of Ms Farouq.
When there are over two million Internally Displaced Nigerians, 230,000 Nigerian refugees in Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, 45,000 refugees in Nigeria, and over 22 million persons with disabilities among others, the new ministry came at the right time.
So, how many agencies are under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs?
List of Agencies of Nigeria’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs
- National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons,
- National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA),
- National Social Investment Office (NSIO),
- North-East Development Commission,
- Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals,
- National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.
Sub-units
The six agencies also have an array of programmes and units under them. For instance, the National Social Investment Office has four programmes under it. They are:
- Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP)
- N-Power
- Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)
- Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP)
The NSIO has gulped most of the budget of the ministry.
Contact details of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs
At the time of compiling this report, the official website of the ministry was under construction, but it already has a domain name.
- Website: http://fmhds.gov.ng/
- Twitter Handle: @FMHDSD
- Sadiya’s official Twitter handle: @Sadiya_farouq
Good morning my name is Zakar Usman Garba I’m from Yobe state. My problem is that I haven’t received either stipend till now.