The Federal Government will assume full leadership of Nigeria’s humanitarian coordination system by January 1, 2027, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, disclosed on Tuesday.
Doro made the disclosure while briefing journalists after the opening of the Joint Humanitarian Transition Workshop, co-hosted by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction and the United Nations at UN House, Abuja.
“The transition is on, and by 1 January 2027, government will assume full leadership of the transition,” the minister said, describing the transition as a major shift in the country’s aid architecture since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009.
The workshop drew major stakeholders to map a six-month roadmap for handing over the coordination of Nigeria’s humanitarian response from the UN system to national institutions.
Doro explained that Nigeria was among eight countries globally identified by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee for what he described as a humanitarian reset, where international organisations are withdrawing from the centre of humanitarian coordination and repositioning national governments as the primary actors.
Responding to concerns that the withdrawal of international support could leave millions of Nigeria’s most vulnerable citizens without protection, Doro said Nigerians had nothing to fear.
According to him, “It is Nigeria’s constitutional mandate, the government’s constitutional mandate, to ensure that our people are properly looked after. So we have nothing to worry about; we have nothing to be scared of.”
He said the President had demonstrated the disposition required for the transition.
“President Bola Tinubu has shown a high level of compassion, a high level of care for those vulnerable people in Nigeria.
“The government will continue to lead, will continue to ensure that our constitutional responsibility is taken seriously,” the minister said.
Tuesday’s transition workshop comes amid a global humanitarian financing crisis that has been building since 2024 and reached a breaking point in 2025, when OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian coordination arm, announced a reduction of at least 20 per cent in its global programme budget following confirmed funding cuts from the United States, Sweden, France and Japan.
OCHA’s 2025 approved programme budget of $426.4m faced a shortfall of at least $75m as major donors either scaled back or exited.
Facing funding cuts, the UN’s 2026 Global Humanitarian Overview sought $23bn for the most urgent needs but warned that much of it would not come.
As of the end of June 2025, less than 17 per cent of the $46bn needed to meet global humanitarian needs had been received, a 40 per cent drop compared to the same period in 2024.
In Nigeria, the Northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe alone are home to an estimated 5.9 million people who will require humanitarian assistance in 2026.
However, the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan seeks only $516m, prioritising 2.5 million people in the most acute need of life-saving support.
This accounts for less than half of those who require humanitarian assistance.
In 2025, national NGOs received 70 per cent of direct allocations from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, managed by UNOCHA.
In his keynote address at the workshop, Doro said the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction would assume primary coordination responsibility on behalf of the Federal Government, working with all relevant MDAs, state governments, humanitarian organisations, development partners and affected communities.
He outlined the ministry’s vision for a Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus approach, in which emergency interventions would gradually transition into recovery, resilience-building, social protection, livelihood support and durable solutions rather than remaining permanently in crisis mode.
He said one of the government’s key priorities for the transition was leading the development of Nigeria’s 2027 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan.
This process, he stated, would continue to benefit from the technical expertise of UNOCHA and the UN system while firmly positioning the government at the centre of national planning and coordination.
Meanwhile, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Dr Malick Fall, said the workshop was not about reducing support but about transforming the model through which it was delivered.
He warned that the transition must be carefully managed to ensure that no vulnerable Nigerian falls through the cracks during the handover.
“This transition is not about reducing or ending support. On the contrary, it is about transforming the way support is delivered and how domestic funds, both government and private sector, are mobilised to underwrite this effort,” Fall said in his opening remarks.
He argued that the UN was committed to accompanying Nigeria through the process but noted that the outcome must be genuinely national, not a relabelling of the existing international system under a government umbrella.
Fall stated, “The United Nations fully supports the Government’s vision that humanitarian transition should strengthen, not replace, existing national systems, nor should it simply replicate what we currently have in the North-East under a government umbrella. It will be something new and tailored to the government’s vision.”
He warned of the high stakes involved, saying, “This is not merely a technical policy exercise. It is fundamentally about people’s lives and survival.
“We must put the interests of affected people at the centre of every discussion and every decision we make.
“We cannot allow shifts in coordination arrangements or financing modalities to result in gaps in assistance or protection.”
He said the workshop’s target was a Joint Transition Action Plan with clear priorities, responsibilities and timelines, developed collaboratively by the government and humanitarian partners.
The European Union’s representative at the workshop, Trond Jensen, cautioned against any assumption that the handover meant reduced vigilance or reduced funding.
He said the EU would remain engaged in Nigeria’s humanitarian space even as leadership transferred to the government, but stressed that the financial architecture needed to be properly anchored before the transition could be considered successful.
Jensen said, “It is very important first to have regular, sufficient and predictable funding sources for humanitarian needs in Nigeria.
“The main responsibility will be for Nigerian authorities. Federal and state governments and also the private sector as a complement are here to fund.”
He added that “The humanitarian needs, unfortunately, are not declining; they are growing, so there is still a lot to do.
“But it is very good and very commendable that Nigeria wants to take responsibility.
“I think it is a very adjusted strategy to a global context of declining humanitarian funding while global humanitarian needs are on the rise.”
The workshop is expected to produce a roadmap for the six-month transition period to January 2027, covering coordination architecture, institutions and capacities, information management, financing mechanisms and anticipatory action frameworks.
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