Tinubu Govt To Spend ₦83.2 Billion To Tackle Flooding Nationwide

The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the release of ₦83.2 billion under the Anticipatory Action Trust Fund to tackle the recurring challenge of flooding across the country.

Naija News reports that the approval was given on Thursday, June 18, 2026, at the NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja.

Speaking with State House correspondents after the meeting, Cross River State Governor Bassey Otu said that over ₦166 billion was initially proposed for the trust fund.

He, however, disclosed that the council approved ₦83.2bn for the intervention.

The Anticipatory Action Trust Fund is expected to support proactive measures against flooding, including early warning systems, emergency preparedness and other flood mitigation initiatives.

The council noted the importance of the fund in addressing disasters and emergencies across the country.

It also stressed that NEC could no longer be seen as an institution that only responds after disasters have occurred, but one that takes proactive measures to reduce their impact.

The approval comes amid repeated cases of seasonal flooding across several states, which often lead to the displacement of residents, the destruction of farmlands and damage to public infrastructure.

Speaking at the meeting, Shettima said the reform agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration must now produce visible results across the federation.

The Vice President said the council’s work must be judged by the impact it has on the lives of ordinary Nigerians, especially farmers, manufacturers, vulnerable citizens, unemployed youths and children who will inherit the country.

He said, “When this Council last met, I called our economy a workshop. A place of measurement and correction. A place where plans are turned into systems, and systems into institutions, before any of it becomes prosperity.

“A workshop is judged by one thing. Not by the plans pinned to its walls, but by what comes off the bench. We return to that bench today. Not to admire the image, but to ask the question that honours it. Is the work taking shape?”

In a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima said Nigeria remained a federation moving from stabilisation to production.

According to him, the country is also moving from aspiration to implementation and from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth.

He said the agenda before the council was not a new conversation, but a continuation of a national assignment that now required greater pressure for action and results.

“The assignment has not changed. We remain a federation moving from stabilisation to production, from aspiration to implementation, from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth. What has changed, I hope, is our proximity to delivery,” Shettima said.

“A federation does not earn its prosperity by leaving its most vulnerable behind and hoping they catch up. The dignity of the citizen with the least is the floor beneath which we have resolved that no Nigerian shall fall.”

The Vice President said the social protection agenda before the NEC was an opportunity to turn national conscience into a durable system that protects citizens and strengthens human capital.

He noted that the government must ensure that vulnerable Nigerians are not left behind as reforms continue across different sectors.

Shettima said the council must focus on practical outcomes that improve lives, create opportunities and strengthen the foundation for national development.

On exports and production, Shettima said Nigeria must stop relying on the export of raw materials while importing finished products from other countries.

He said the country’s economic transformation depended on building a complete value chain linking farms to factories, factories to standards, standards to ports, and ports to markets.

“We cannot continue to export raw materials and import finished products,” he said.

The Vice President assured that NEC would confront the bottlenecks weakening Nigeria’s agricultural exports, particularly the challenges affecting the movement of goods through the ports and the standards required by international markets.

Shettima said improving port processes and meeting export compliance requirements were central to rewarding farmers, strengthening manufacturers and expanding Nigeria’s participation in global trade.

According to him, farmers and producers can only benefit fully from their labour when goods move efficiently and meet global market standards.

“A nation that cannot move its goods has imprisoned its own farmers. Meeting international standards is not submission to foreign demand. It is the price of the markets that will reward our labour,” Shettima added.

The meeting also reinforced the council’s focus on coordinated national growth, emergency preparedness, social protection and reforms aimed at strengthening production across the country.