Denis Thieulin, the head of the EU delegation to Nigeria, said at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the regional bloc and southeast Nigeria's Bayelsa State government on Friday that the expenditure is to assuage militancy in the region.
Thieulin listed the benefiting states as Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Abia, Cross River and Imo.
He said the EU approved the MPP9 program in September 2008 to support the Niger Delta communities after the successful completion of the earlier MPP3 and MPP6 programs.
"The aim of the project is to institute reforms, resulting in local governments and state authorities increasingly providing infrastructure services, income generating options, sustainable livelihood developments, gender equity and community empowerment, "he said.
"This is done through offering models of transparency and participation," he added.
Thieulin said out of the total amount, about 4 million euro is channeled to accelerate social and economic development and to assist in resolving the conflicts in the state of Bayelsa.
"We are going to finance about 130 micro projects in that area; as you know we cannot deal with everything in that area because it is a small amount but our purpose is to encourage states and local governments to work with the communities to restore trust," he said.
