The Sokoto State Governor, Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto has received the Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, where he solicited for support in educational development of the state from the envoy.
He emphatically solicited for the support and cooperation of the Switzerland authorities in the areas of education, healthcare delivery and human development.
The governor appealed for Switzerland’s support to Sokoto State in the areas of out-of-school children, IDP camps as well as support to vulnerable groups that need its serious support in line with the intervention they are giving to Nigeria.
He also stated that his administration is always ready to collaborate with any country or body working towards making the lives of the people better.
Alhaji Aliyu thanked the envoy for the visit and assured him of his administration’s readiness to partner his country in the overall interest of the state.
Earlier in his speech, Ambassador Nicholas Lang, represented by the Press Secretary for Humanitarian and Development Cooperation, Nicholas Martins told the governor that Switzerland has been implementing humanitarian projects in close collaboration with the Nigerian government since 2014.
He disclosed that their focus had been very extensive in the North East, Nigeria, responding to the victims of Boko Haram insurgence. But that the embassy has not been blind to the fact that there are also the humanitarian needs in the North West of the country, arising from the raging banditry crisis.
“We are doing advocacy at our level here to our headquarters to enable us go beyond our area of focus so far which was the North East,” he added.
Lang added that they were able to fund a project in Sokoto, partnering Action Against Hunger, an NGO that will be implementing a one year project in Bodinga and Tambuwal Local Government Areas.
The project, he said, is focusing on nutrition, water and sanitation, which he said is the first Switzerland project in the state.
He commended Gov. Ahmed Aliyu for the interest and commitment shown in the collaboration with his country to tackle the humanitarian issues in the state.
