Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Leadway Assurance Limited, Tunde Hassan-Odukale, has called on Nigerians to prepare proactively for eventualities that would trail the weather forecast and heavy rains expected this year.
He called on Nigerians not to ignore the early warning forecast about this year’s rainfall and flooding expectation, but to prepare properly instead to mitigate the likely damages to life and property.
According to him, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) in its recent forecast, issued a grim prediction of what is to come, including early onset of rainfall accompanied by heavy flooding.
He added that coastal areas in the South-South, particularly, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers States, will experience downpours; Southern Inland cities will experience precipitation while central states will experience heavy rain. Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Enugu, Anambra, Ogun, and Lagos states are also listed among those going to experience flooding and he advised residents to safeguard life and property.
Citing a 2022 report, he revealed that floods resulted in 662 deaths across 33 states as heavy rains washed away years of investments in agriculture, farmlands and properties estimated at trillions of Naira. The report also estimates that over two million Nigerians were displaced while the economy lost over N4.2 trillion to the floods.
“This year’s forecast paints a bleak picture, especially against the backdrop of the prevailing global inflation and economic vulnerabilities and uncertainties. We must proactively take action to mitigate the human and material losses from the flooding incidents last year”, he said.
Revealing that they have designed insurance policies to help victims of flood recover from the financial losses, which experts estimated at over N4.2 trillion, Hassan-Odukale said agriculture, which contributed 26.97 percent to the national GDP last year, is the most vulnerable sector to flood devastation.
