The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has reaffirmed its commitment to deepening institutional collaboration with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity for coordinated disaster response and public health management.
The renewed partnership seeks to integrate health interventions within disaster management frameworks, ensuring more effective prevention, preparedness, and humanitarian support to vulnerable populations across the country.
NEMA Director General, Mrs. Zubaida Umar, gave the assurance while receiving the NACA Director General, Dr. Temitope Ilori, and her management team on a courtesy visit to NEMA Headquarters in Abuja.
During the visit, both agencies—established around the same period with coordinating mandates—explored areas of synergy between disaster management and HIV/AIDS control, particularly in prevention, community engagement, and humanitarian response.
Mrs. Umar commended the NACA team for their dedication to addressing HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, describing the visit as both timely and strategic. She emphasized that closer cooperation between the two agencies would strengthen resilience, raise awareness, and enhance community-level interventions.
“We are both coordinating agencies—NACA focuses on HIV/AIDS while NEMA handles disaster management. The link between health crises and disaster response is undeniable, and this partnership will help us respond better to vulnerable populations,” she stated.
She highlighted the need for joint efforts in prevention and data sharing, especially in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps where public health risks are heightened.
“Investing in prevention saves lives and reduces the long-term cost of response. It aligns with this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction theme, which stresses the importance of prevention over reaction,” she added.
Mrs. Umar also expressed interest in including HIV prevention materials in NEMA’s humanitarian kits and awareness campaigns, noting that IDP camps could benefit from increased access to preventive resources and stigma-free education. She welcomed NACA’s proposal for joint training and capacity-building for staff and emergency responders to improve competence in handling persons living with HIV during emergencies.
Earlier, NACA’s Director General, Dr. Temitope Ilori, lauded NEMA’s leadership in coordinating national emergency management efforts. She explained that the visit aimed to strengthen collaboration in integrating HIV/AIDS considerations into disaster management strategies.
Dr. Ilori noted that about two million Nigerians are currently living with HIV, stressing that partnerships with agencies like NEMA would ensure that vulnerable groups—especially those in disaster-prone and displacement areas—are not left behind. She also underscored the role of community outreach, preventive education, and data-driven planning in curbing transmission and supporting affected persons.
Both agencies agreed to expand collaboration in awareness creation, preventive material distribution, and inclusion of health protection strategies within emergency operations.
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Directors from both sides praised the initiative and called for more structured inter-agency coordination, training exchanges, and harmonized community-level interventions.
The visit ended with an exchange of souvenirs and a group photograph, marking the start of a renewed partnership between Nigeria’s two key coordinating bodies for disaster and health management.
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