During a courtesy call in Maiduguri on Monday, the commission’s chairman, Maj-Gen Paul Tarfa (Retd.), and Managing Director, Ambassador Goni Alkali, presented the cheque to Governor Babagana Zulum.

Alkali said that the purpose of the gesture was to assist in reviving the trade of over 800,000 traders who had lost their businesses to the market inferno.

 “The reopening of the Monday Market last week after it was reconstructed by the state government and other assistance from individuals and organizations is a welcome development, hence, the NEDC’s gesture to help the traders restart businesses,” he said.

The NEDC team also visited the local government areas of Bama and Kundiga, which were recovered from Boko Haram terrorists. There, they inspected newly constructed police barracks and other buildings that were destroyed by insurgents.

Governor Zulum responded by congratulating the newly appointed NEDC board members and pledging to judiciously allocate the N2 billion to the impacted victims of the Inferno. He said, the crisis perpetrated by insurgents has led to the destruction of 5,000 classrooms, 800 municipal houses, 1 million homes, and displacement of about 50,000 widows and orphans across the state.