The European Union plans to boost aid to Nigeria in the next five years with a large portion aimed at supporting the OPEC member’s security forces, a senior European official said on Friday.
The EU has proposed increasing its financial grants to Africa’s most populous country to 580 million euros through 2013, up nearly 30 percent from the existing aid package of 450 million euros, said Denis Thieulin, head of development for the European Commission in Nigeria.
“We are working with the government to prepare a new programme exercise for 2009 to 2013. We hope we will be able to conclude by the end of the year,” Thieulin told Reuters at the delegation’s office in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
With many donors and governments slashing billions in their foreign aid budgets due to the global financial crisis, any increase in EU funding would be welcomed by Nigeria, where most of the 140 million people live on less than $2 a day.
As part of its aid package, the EU could for the first time provide funding for training and technical assistance for Nigeria’s police and military deployed both within the country and abroad on peacekeeping missions in Africa.
The amount of EU money earmarked for security has yet to be finalised. But Thieulin said it would be a “large part” of the aid package.
IMPROVING GOVERNANCE
Some European tax payers question whether donors should give so much money to a country which is the world’s eighth biggest exporter of crude oil and notorious for corruption.
Standard Bank estimates the Nigeria received a nominal $436 billion in direct hydrocarbons revenues and taxes from 1970-2007, equivalent to more than $1 trillion in today’s money.
But decades of mismanagement have seen the wealth squandered, leaving the vast majority of people lacking even basic services such as mains power or reliable healthcare.
“We are talking about a country with 140 million inhabitants. If we want to solve the issue of poverty in Africa, we have to do something in Nigeria,” Thieulin said.
“As all donors know, money is not the issue in the country. What is important is to find a way to support Nigerian reforms to improve the situation in terms of governance, finance management and service delivery,” he said.
Insecurity, particularly in the oil-producing Niger Delta, has been a major hindrance to foreign investment in Nigeria.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua in September urged the international community to assist its efforts in improving the security situation in the delta, where violence has cut a fifth of oil output over the past three years.
Military assistance has long been a sensitive subject, with militants regularly threatening to attack business interests of any country deemed to be offering help to the army.
Nigeria’s most prominent militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), threatened this month to target Italian companies because of Rome’s offer of assistance in fighting drug trafficking and crime.
MEND is still holding two British oil workers kidnapped more than five months ago in the Niger Delta. The group has accused the British government of offering military support to help Africa’s biggest oil producer fight militant groups.