The Dangote Foundation has flagged off the distribution of 106 trucks of food items to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
This is for the feeding of people in the camps during the ongoing Ramadan period.
According to Zouwaira Youssufu, chairperson of the foundation, the donation was in fulfillment of Aliko Dangote’s earlier promise to feed people who have been displaced by insurgency in the state.
Dangote recently donated N2 billion to the Borno State government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of critical infrastructure that was destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima who was present at the occasion acknowledged that in time of very serious challenges, the Dangote Foundation had stood firmly on the side of the people. He disclosed that the donation of food trucks was not the first time that the foundation was intervening in Borno state, adding that a year ago, the Foundation donated the sum of N400 million to 40,000 IDPs and indigent people of Borno. “Apart from that, for the past couple of years, the foundation had been sending food items for distribution to the people of Borno state,” Shettima added. He assured the foundation and the people of Borno State that the N2 billion expected from the foundation would be judiciously utilized for the good of the people in areas of health, education and gender empowerment.
He said the state government will provide the Dangote Foundation with the list of the projects to support so that the monies will go directly into the projects for which they were intended to avoid the issue of embezzlement.