On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN office for refugees, announced that Nigeria was home to over 80,000 refugees and 3.2 million internally displaced people in desperate need of assistance.
The majority of Nigerians were unaware that the country was sheltering over 80,000 refugees, the most of whom were from Cameroon, according to the report.
The UNHCR Representative in Nigeria, Chansa Kapaya, told journalists on the sidelines of the workshop on harnessing the power of zakat to support families forced to flee in Nigeria that the event was organized to raise cash to support IDPs and refugees.
“With the tremendous forced displacement of people, monies are never enough, especially for the IDPs and refugees in this country,” she remarked. All of these efforts are only attempts to enhance the amount of resources allocated to supporting and assisting individuals.
Nigeria has 3.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and over 80 refugees, and we believe that the majority of Nigerians are unaware that the country is hosting so many refugees.
“The majority of them are from Cameroon, and they’re in Nigeria’s southern states, but there are also IDPs in the north-east, the middle belt, and the north-west.” As a result, there are a large number of people who are in need of assistance.”
“We’re looking at $30 million,” Kapaya said of the expected target contribution needed to support refugees and IDPs this year.
“Last year, we managed to gather only approximately $98,000,” she added, noting that the UNHCR launched the Islamic Philanthropy campaign in 2020.
This was given to some of the most disadvantaged households in the North-East, largely in the form of livelihood packages and non-food goods sent directly to their homes.”
“As a result, we’re building on that initiative and the gains we’ve gained.” We hope that by holding this type of discussion, we will be able to gain more support. This is only a small portion of the total resource collection.”
The UNHCR, according to Kapaya, is promoting collaborations because the number of globally displaced people is on the rise.
“Of course, we’ll have to look at various collaborations and strategies for resource mobilization,” she explained.
