"Borno lost $6.9billion to Boko Haram insurgency"

Borno state lost 6.9billion dollars to the Book Haram insurgency, the state’s Commissioner of Reconstruction Rehabilitation and Resettlement Professor Babagana Umar has disclosed.

Speaking at the Stakeholders High Level Monitoring Mission to Visit to PAN Learning Center in Kaduna where 159 Internally Displaced Person's (IDP's) from the North-East are currently undergoing training on automobile engineers courtesy the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the commissioner noted that the figures were  arrived at by an assessment of the world bank which he said calls for the support of world and regional agencies towards rebuilding the ravaged communities.

He said, "It is on record that the state has lost 5,000 classrooms, 260 healthcare centres,  900 municipal buildings and 1,600 water distribution pumps, among other key structures like power lines to insurgency.

" There is urgent need for intervention in the IDPs camps in the state, sheltering about 200, 000 in Maiduguri, and about two million across the  state, where poverty is getting stronger, resulting to unsavoury stories emanating from the camps."

He commended the UNDP for the gesture, while assuring of the state government’s desire to partner with the organization towards training more youth to not only become self-reliant, but be employers.

The UNDP Livelihood programme coordinator, Mr. Mathew Also, however, said that the programme is planning to sponsor 1, 500 IDP's at the centre in order for them to be self-reliant through funding from the European Union.

The Managing Director, PAN, Alhaji Ibrahim Boyi explained that PAN centre trains its student on modern and precise methods of fault detection in vehicles and the required knowledge and skills to repairs them. He said the centre twins its students with the skills to set up a one-stop shop for automobile related issues which would be better organised including monitoring to see how they are faring.

The Director-General of the PAN Learning Centre, Mrs. Elizabeth Olubukola Mordi, said the centre’s certificate is accepted worldwide as they are currently accredited by the City and Guilds and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

One of the female trainees who spoke to newsmen, 20-year old Fatima Mohammed from Yobe who lost her father, said that she has learnt a lot and would waste no time in starting up a workshop when she graduates in July this year.