Deputy National Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers (NIHTE), Dr Bola Mudasiru, has said that Nigeria loses an estimated $31.65 million yearly to floods and landslides, underscoring the growing threat posed by climate-related disasters across the region.

Citing data from the 2024 ND-GAIN Index, Mudasiru noted that Sierra Leone ranked as the ninth most climate-vulnerable country in the world.

Mudasiru disclosed this while delivering a paper at the Biennial Conference 2026 of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers titled, “From Vulnerability to Resilience: Building Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure for Sierra Leone’s Future.”

He cited data from the 2024 ND-GAIN Index ranking Sierra Leone as the ninth most climate-vulnerable country globally.

He said: “The country loses an estimated $31.65m yearly to floods and landslides, with a vulnerability score of 0.597 described as “extremely high” and a readiness score of 0.297, placing it 155th out of 182 countries.”

In a statement issued after the conference, Mudasiru referenced the devastating August 2017 Mount Sugar Loaf landslide disaster, which claimed more than 1,000 lives, displaced over 3,000 people and caused infrastructure damage estimated at over $100 million.

He noted that geotechnical analysis showed slope factors of safety as low as FoS 1.2 on critical hillsides, far below the minimum threshold of 1.5, worsened by choked drainage and unregulated development.

He warned of “asset degradation, fiscal drain, connectivity loss and a reactive trap” without preventive action.

To address the challenge, he recommended that no new public infrastructure project, irrespective of funding source or political importance, should proceed without a certified Climate Vulnerability Assessment.
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