The Lake Chad Basin Commission member States and other donor partners announced financial contributions to render the regional force operational.

The fight against the terrorist sect, Boko Haram is taking a different dimension ever since Heads of State of member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission concluded on the putting in place of the Multi-national Joint Task Force on June 11, 2015 in Abuja, Nigeria. The appointments of officials of the said Regional Force by the Nigerian President and his Cameroonian counterpart, President Paul Biya coupled with the inauguration of the headquarters of the MNJTF in N’Djamena, Chad speaks volumes of the determination of both leaders as well as their counterparts of Chad, Niger and Benin to eradicate the Boko Haram scourge in the Lake Chad Basin.

For the Multi-national Joint Task Force to be effective, the availability of financial resources is a condition sin-qua-non. Cognizant of this, the Lake Chad Basin Commission member States pledged the colossal sum of FCFA 50 billion to render the force operational. The Nigerian government announced the contribution of 100 million US Dollars (about FCFA 59 billion). Meanwhile, in March 2015, British Foreign Secretary announced the United Kingdom’s robust financial support to the regional task force of 5 million Pounds (about FCFA 4.4 billion).

The United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield in mid June 2015 also announced her country’s support of 5 million US Dollars (About FCFA 2.9 billion) to the Multi-national Joint Task Force to help tackle Boko Haram. Thus, the Multi-national Joint Task Force as per the announced contributions is already boosting of over FCFA 66 billion. Attempts to get the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission based in N’Djamena, Chad by press time to confirm the availability of these funds were futile.