Human Trafficking: Switzerland signs N10milion agreement with ANEEJ
BENIN CITY, NIGERIA. April 16, 2020…. The Embassy of Switzerland has signed a ten million Naira (N10million) agreement with the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) a leading Civil Society Organisation in Nigeria to combat human trafficking and irregular migration in Edo State.
The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency Mr. Georg Steiner who signed the agreement on behalf of Switzerland in a letter to ANEEJ today said his country was providing a ten million Naira grant for ANEEJ to implement “Tackling human trafficking through advocacy to increase investment on Human Capital Development” in Edo State.
Mr. Steiner further said the approved grant agreement covers a period of 9 April to 01 December 2020.
Executive Director of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), the Rev David Ugolor who signed the agreement on behalf of his organization expressed deep gratitude to the Swiss government for providing the grant to his organization to address some critical issues of migration and human trafficking in Nigeria.
Rev Ugolor said: “The project is to generate data that will provide evidence to support Public Policy in combating irregular migration as well as strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to advocate for increased investment in Human Capital Development through budget monitoring that will promote transparency and accountability in public spending needed to engender good governance and sustainable development.
The ANEEJ boss who expressed the organisation’s gratitude to Switzerland Embassy in Nigeria for their continued support said “the goal of the project is to improve the knowledge of Citizens, media and Policy Makers around the issues of good governance and Open Budgetary processes that support civic engagement, noting that with increased transparency in public spending which the project seeks to achieve, there will be more investment in education and the health sector which will help address the current poor funding associated with public spending in the social sector.
“We are hitting the ground going with the project as we have an in-house COVID 19 guideline which covers the new contract for our migration work. This project is very dear to us as many citizens of Edo State have either been victims of human trafficking or irregular migration and the project will meet the aspirations of beneficiaries,” adds Ms Sandra Eguagie, ANEEJ’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.
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