The Minister of State for Environment, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, has said the Federal Government would support the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW), to provide the Great Green Integrator programme with its own financial instruments.

She said this during a courtesy visit of the Executive Secretary, Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW), Dr. Brahim Said, and his team, to Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja.

“The Secretariat must ensure the technical and financial viability to operationalise recommendations of Vision 2030 and 2022-2023 roadmap of the Executive Secretariat Priority Action Areas.

”The Priority Action Areas were validated at the fourth ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the PAGGW in December 2021.

“This will also form part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s roadmap in providing purposeful leadership towards addressing land degradation, climate change, deforestation, food security, desertification, and biodiversity in Africa, within two years of his tenure,” she said.

Mr. Adamu Ibrahim-Larmua, Ambassador of Nigeria to Senegal and Mauritania, said that the support by Mauritania is a good start-up point for Nigeria.

He said if the GGW initiative is well harnessed, it would take care of many problems in Nigeria.

“Nigeria has taken the lead of the Presidency of the PAGGW and it is an important step for us.

”The GGW initiative has gone beyond Environment problems. It is also security, economic and there’s a lot that Nigeria can take home with this opportunity,” he said.

The Director-General of NAGGW, Dr. Bukar Hasan, said the Meeting is important to Nigeria because it would provide relevant information, strategies, the operational status of the secretariat that would enable the President to run the Agency in a way to benefits all member states.