‘Nigeria loses $12b annually to farmers/herders crisis’

An estimated $12billion is being reportedly lost to farmers/herders crisis annually in Nigeria’s middle belt region.

Country Director of Mercy Corps, Ndubisi Anyanwu, on Tuesday, made this known during an interview with newsmen shortly after meeting with some government officials and local government chairmen in Makurdi.

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“We had estimated loses of about $12billion annually as a result of farmers/herders crisis.

“This is something that is quite significant and it has the ability to affect the whole of Nigeria,” he said.

Anyanwu added that the issue of conflicts between farmers and herders needed to be taken seriously, stressing the reason for his organisation’s intervention in the middle belt region.

He noted that Mercy Corps, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), focuses on 60 months peace building in Benue and few other states in the country and had come to the state to seek area of collaboration with the state government.

The Country Director explained that, in building peace in the region, the organisation would engage the state at all level as it focuses on issues bedeviling the region as well as the states in particular to implement projects with direct bearing on the lives of the populace.

Anyanwu stressed that; “we are talking intervention to restore peace in the region with immediate effect.

“Already, we are impressed with the capacity on the ground.”

Earlier, the local government chairmen in their separate remarks identified farmers/herders conflicts, youth restiveness and lack of basic social amenities as some issues needing intervention in their locality.