President Muhammadu Buhari has been chosen as the President of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW)
Thus is even as the Green Wall has selected Nigeria to host the upcoming summit of the Heads of State of the body next month.
The Minister of Environment, Dr Muhammed Abubakar, made the disclosure while addressing a press conference on recent positive developments within the environment sector in Abuja.
He said that only last week at the 7th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW) on 29th July, 2021 Nouakchott, Mauritania, the council adopted among others the following: That Nigeria host the 8th Ministers meeting of the PAGGW later in the year, and the 5th Summit of the Heads of State and Government virtually in September, 2021.
He added that it was also agreed that President Muhammadu Buhari assumes the presidency of the Heads of States and Government of the PAGGW at the end of the 5th Summit.
Abubakar noted that President Buhari was chosen to head the body because the council believes that he is capable of taking the GGW delivery structure to a higher level if he becomes the Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of PAGGW.
He said it is also believed that if the Nigerian president takes over the leadership of the PAGGW, it would be easier for the GGW programme to access about 5 billion USD as grant and 14 billion USD soft loan available out there because of the respect the world has for the president.
Abubakar said. “Accordingly, all the eleven countries (Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sudan) that made up the GGW supports the presidential aspiration of Nigeria.”
He said also agreed is that he as Nigeria’s Minister of Environment assumes the Chairmanship of the Council of Ministers at the end of the 5th Summit.
He said additional highlights of the meeting include that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union Bank had expressed support for the GGW programme; the importance of using the GGW programme to address the biodiversity problem of Africa as the GGW programme remains the future of Africa should be emphasised.
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