How Nigeria, Three Other Countries Will Benefit From Germany’s €18million Fund In Lake Chad

Germany has set aside 18million Euro for the recharging of the Lake Chad through the diversion of rivers in the Congo Basin to empty their waters into the lake. Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel announced this on Friday in Berlin after bilateral talks with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Lake Chad is economically important, providing water to more than 68 million people living in the four countries surrounding it (Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria) on the edge of the Sahara Desert. It is the largest lake in the Chad Basin.

The Lake shrank by as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998, but “the 2007 (satellite) image shows significant improvement over previous years.

Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, via a statement issued on Friday in Abuja, stated that Merkel spoke at a joint press conference with Buhari.

According to Shehu , both the German leader and President Buhari said they have marked the Lake Chad project as one of their priorities.

“The Lake Chad region is a great priority to us and Nigeria is part and parcel of that. And in terms of cooperation, we will earmark 18 billion Euro for Lake Chad region area and 50 billion Euro for the overall areas,’’ Merkel said.