5.2 MILLION PEOPLE AFFECTED BY FLOOD IN 2024

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By: Sefiu Ajape

The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mrs. Zubaida Umar, disclosed on Friday that flooding incidents across Nigeria in 2024 impacted no fewer than 5,264,097 people.

She made the revelation during an inception meeting held in Abuja between NEMA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) focused on emergency support for flood-related disasters. Mrs. Umar also stated that the floods claimed 1,237 lives during the period.

Giving a presentation on the overview of the agency’s operations, and flood situation in the country, the Assistant Director, Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Simon Katu, who spoke on behalf of the DG, said, “Widespread flood was reported in 2024 and early 2025 across 35 states. There is displacement of over 1.2 million persons due to protracted conflicts, floods, communal crises, among others.

“There was destruction of critical infrastructure (roads, bridges, health facilities); loss of lives and livelihoods, especially in riverine and low-lying communities, compounded by urban poor drainage, climate change, and population pressure.”

Giving an overview of the 2024 flood disaster, she stated that 35 states were affected in 401 Local Government Areas.

“It affected 5,264,097 individuals; 1,243,638 individuals were displaced; 1,237 lives were lost; 16,469 individuals were injured; 116,172 houses destroyed; and 1,439,296 farmlands (hectares) were affected,” she highlighted.

She stressed that in 2025, 12 states and 43 local government areas are projected to fall within high flood-risk zones, while the remaining 13 states and other LGAs are expected to experience low flood risk.

Speaking on the Mokwa flood disaster, she revealed that more than 3,000 people were affected, over 1,005 displaced, over 100 confirmed dead, and more than 100 others reported missing or injured.

“This year, we launched a national preparedness and response campaign, which was to go to states and community levels to talk directly to people for community action in preparedness, planning, and response. Last year, we visited about 24 states, but this year, we have covered the entire country and entire communities,” she added.

She also unveiled the agency’s plan to conduct a simulation exercise in Anambra and Kano states, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Project Formulation Advisor for JICA, Mr. Keisuke Matsushita,conclu harped on the need to set up a technical committee that will work out modalities for the capacity building in Japan.

This, according to him, will require the Japanese government’s approval.

“We would like to explore a possible collaboration and support in this area in the long term. As you know, JICA provided some emergency relief supplies in 2014. So, in that case, we need to respond very quickly to respond to emergency.

“So, in the long term, we want to explore how to respond quickly so that we can address these challenges. So, we cannot de this meeting, but we want to further discuss how to prepare some logistics or procedure agreement between NEMA and JICA about supplying relief. This requires further technical discussions. I would like to propose another opportunity to discuss further.

“We would like to discuss long-term capacity building. I believe, as presented in the earlier presentation, NEMA is requesting long-term capacity building in this area,” he said.

Matsushita highlighted the urgent need for capacity building in response to frequent flooding disasters in Nigeria.

He noted that JICA is interested in supporting training programmes focused on disaster management.

He also proposed holding technical discussions to finalize the training content and clarify procedural arrangements.

On her part, Mrs Umar set up a five-man committee to interface with JICA and to take a holistic approach to everything that needs to be accomplished, including training needs.

She urged the committee to agree on a timeline, ideally starting early next week, so that the work can begin promptly and reach a timely conclusion.

The committee is led by the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction at NEMA, Mr. Idris Abubakar Mohammed.