The Borno State Emergency Management Agency has resettled 115,000 households in their ancestral homes and other areas of their choices.

Director-General of the agency, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo made this known on Wednesday in Maiduguri while defending the agency’s budget for 2022 at the state’s House of Assembly.

The budget defence took place before the House’s Committee on Departments and Parastatals under the Governor’s Office.

Kolo said the resettlement was done in collaboration with the Ministries of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Health, Education and the state’s Sustainable Development Agency.

She added that the agency’s 2021 budget of N500 million was implemented by 80 per cent.

She explained that part of the N1 billion allocated to the agency in 2022 would be used for continuity in the execution of its mandate.

Other parts would be used on researches to improve its performance in catering to displaced persons and the repositioning of the agency to handle outcomes of disasters like flooding and pandemics.

“We have to see that we bring in expertise and good consultancy to reposition the organisation for 2022,’’ Kolo stressed.

She also spoke of the agency’s role in promoting social cohesion in resettled communities.

In his remarks, Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Aji Kolo, lauded the agency for its performance level in the face of challenges faced in 2021.

He assured that the House would continue to support it to deliver on its mandate.

“It’s an impressive performance. I think whatever amount given to SEMA will not be too much based on its performance.

“We will increase its budget whenever the need arises through virement or supplementary budget,’’ Kolo said.

In another development, an NGO, Taj Foundation, has donated rice laden in three articulated vehicles to Borno through SEMA for distribution to displaced persons in rural areas.

Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, Dr Hauwa Mandara, said at the ceremony on Wednesday in Maiduguri that Taj Bank Nigeria, a non interest bank, established the Foundation.

The bank uses interests generated in its operations to support the needy, particularly displaced persons in northeast and in other parts of the country.

“Taj Bank is a non interest bank; so any money accruing as a result of saving resources that is interest-generated is meant to be spent on charity.

Mandara said similar donation had been made to Bauchi State and would be extended to Yobe, Gombe and Taraba states.