The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, on Thursday, visited the headquarters of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA headquarters Abuja, which is currently undergoing renovations.
While inspecting the project, she disclosed that the renovation of the building was 92 percent complete.
Sadiya noted that the building would be ready in two weeks and a date would be fixed for its commissioning.
“We can all see for ourselves that the work is nearly in completion. From what the engineers told me, about 92 percent completion has been reached. They assured me that in the next two weeks precisely, this place will be fully completed and we will be able to commission the project.
“I’m very impressed with the level of work on ground. The work started in 2019 but stopped for some time due to lack of mobilisation, but continued when the new NEMA DG resumed office. I must commend his zeal and diligence in ensuring that this work continued. It is extremely important that NEMA has a befitting office where staff have a conducive atmosphere to discharge their primary responsibility of immediate response to disasters in this country.,” she said.
Also speaking, the Director General, NEMA, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, said work had earlier stopped on the project due to non availability of funds.
Ahmed expressed his sincere gratitude and appreciation to the federal government for making available resources for the completion of the project
“There were no funds available for this project. Contractors were just mobilised and the work was not going anywhere. So there was a need to see that the work that this administration started, is also commissioned. Therefore, the Minister has come here to see for herself and she seems to be very impressed with what we’ve done here,” he said.
He further said that by April ending, the Agency would have relocated back to its building as it has been operating from the WAEC building at Maitama, which is inconvenient for the staff.
“The contractors have done a very good job. They are about to give us a world class NEMA building. You can see here that we have clinic, control centre and we have structures to accommodate everybody. The place we are using temporarily, some staff don’t even have desks to operate, so there is a need to really relocate back here. By the end of this month, we would be coming back here,” he said.
