The Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has hailed Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, for taking the lead in Africa to restore degraded lands as part of Nigeria’s climate change plans.
Bezos said this on Monday in Glasgow, Scotland, when he joined Buhari; French President, Emmanuel Macron; Prince Charles and the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ghazouani at a COP 26 side event.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement, saying the theme of the event was “Accelerating land restoration in Africa, the case of the Great Green Wall initiative.”
Commending the President, the Amazon boss said, ‘‘We are fortunate to have President Buhari of Nigeria with us today.
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‘‘Nigeria plays a critical role in the restoration movement and has pledged to restore 4 million hectares of degraded lands. This kind of ambition coming from Africa’s largest economy underscores just how vital this issue is.’’
The Bezos Earth Fund has $10bn to allocate to projects fighting climate change.
Buhari had used the occasion of his address to appeal to fellow leaders to continue to make concerted efforts at land restoration saying, ‘‘I am optimistic that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100million hectares of the degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable.’’
The President also pledged Nigeria’s unalloyed commitment to expanding the achievements of the GGW programme in Africa from the enviable status attained under the leadership of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania.
‘‘Together we commit to the transformative process of restoring the African degraded landscape and ultimately the continent’s environment,’’ he said.
