International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has earmarked $668,000 (N106.9 billion) support to scale up response to flooding in the country. According to the organisation, the Rapid Response Fund (RRF) was to support emergency humanitarian relief for the flood- affected communities in Jigawa, Katsina and Bauchi states.

The IOM Chief of Mission, Paola Pace, in a statement, yesterday, in Maiduguri, said tens of thousands of people in the affected states, were grappling with the catastrophic impact of the floods.

Additionally, she said their support was vital in enabling IOM and local partners to provide life-saving assistance and help communities rebuild and recover from the catastrophic impacts of the floods. She lamented the killing of 320 people in the recent floods, as over 1.3 million people were affected this year in 34 states across the country.

During the September and October flooding, over 740, 000 were displaced as they fled their submerged homes, including the destruction of 258,000 hectares of farmland.

Pace noted that IOM finalised an initial earmark of $1.8 million to nine local and international non-governmental orgainsations (NGOs) to support emergency response to the floods.

According to her, it brings to over $2.4 million the total fund allocated by the IOM this year.

“This will bolster the delivery of essential services and aid, including emergency shelter, clean water, sanitation facilities and protection,” he said.

MEANWHILE, at the COP29 World Leaders Climate Action Summit in Azerbaijan, the Agriculture Innovation Mechanism for Scale (AIM for Scale) unveiled its first-ever, groundbreaking Innovation Package, aimed at providing weather information to help farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

A consortium of global partners (Global Partnership to Scale-Up Weather Services for Farmers) committed to mobilising significant investments, totalling more than $1 billion over the next three years to drive the implementation of the AIM for Scale Weather Package.

The partners are the Gates Foundation, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and NASA, among others

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), and Permanent Representative of Nigeria with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Prof. Charles Anosike, representing WMO community, shared experiences of NiMet’s Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) and ongoing projects funded by the Gates Foundation in support of scaling up weather services for millions of farmers in Nigeria.