Governor Babagana Zulum on Monday announced the appointment of Usman Aliyu as the director-general of the Borno State Agency for the Great Green Wall.

The GGW is an African Union project to combat desertification in the Sahel region and prevent the expansion of the Sahara desert. The GGW was adopted by the AU in 2007.

Mr Aliyu graduated from the University of Maiduguri with a BSc in Geology in 2007 and later earned a master’s degree in Environmental Management in 2015.

He is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Management at the same university.

Mr Aliyu’s career spanned various roles in both the private and public sectors. He has served as a coordinator under the now-defunct Federal Ministry of Mineral Resources and Geological Survey in Kano and worked with the Borno State Green Hub Africa and the Kano State Ministry of Environment, among others.

Aliyu hails from Hawul LGA in Borno.

The programme in Nigeria focuses on establishing mosaic greenbelts within the identified GGW corridor of the country spanning the drylands of the northern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

The project is being implemented across 22 African countries and will revitalize thousands of communities across the continent.

It brings together African countries and international partners under the leadership of the African Union Commission and the Pan-African Agency of the GGW.

More than $14 billion has been raised and pledged to support the initiative.

The GGW initiative aims to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land, sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create 10 million green jobs by 2030. 

(NAN)