Disaster management in Nigeria dates back to 1906 when the Police Fire Brigade (now Federal Fire Services) was established to function beyond fire fighting role to saving of lives, properties and provision of humanitarian services in emergencies.
However, between 1972 and 1973 Nigeria was hit by a devastating drought which affected devastation to the socio- economy of the Nation and resulted to loss of lives and property worth millions of Naira. This made it imperative for the government to consider a response body to take care of disaster issues because of its serious and adverse effects to the life of her citizens. Thus the establishment of National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA) by Decree 48 of 1976, which was conceived as an Inter-Ministerial Committee, charged with the task of collecting and distributing relief materials to disaster victims. This function of NERA with regards to Disaster Management was very limited because of the scope under which it operated.
In 1990, Nigeria along with other member countries of the United Nations set up a National Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). The Nigerian Inter-Ministerial body set up four sub-committees, with NERA retaining membership in each sub-committee, to address natural disasters reduction in Nigeria. A working group was also inaugurated with a representative from NERA to work out a situation report on Natural Disaster reduction for the country for the remaining years in the decade. This report was submitted in May 1994 and after this submission, the committee ceased to exist. This brought back the task of drawing up a National Agenda on the issue of disaster management in all its ramifications.
In 1993, the government, based on the objectives and goals of the IDNDR decided to expand the scope of managing disasters to include all the areas of disaster management. This included prevention, mitigation, response and recovery. Therefore, Decree 119 of 1993 thus raised the Status of the Agency to an independent body under the Presidency, with the functions of formulating general policies and guidelines relating to management of disasters in Nigeria and friendly countries.
In 1997, having realized the obvious shortcomings of NERA in the management of disasters, the management of NERA under the leadership of the then Director, Mrs. Oluremi Olowu, organized a National Workshop involving major stakeholders in disaster management in Nigeria including Oil Companies, construction companies, government and non-governmental organisations and representatives of UNDP. The Workshop deliberated extensively on a number of issues and considered several critical success and survival factors for effective disaster Management in Nigeria and came up with a communiquè which:

NEMA ZONES

Regional Offices of NEMA in Nigeria and contact information

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Since inception in 1999, NEMA has been active in providing timely relief assistance to victims both at national and international levels.
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NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE PLAN

The National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP) was prepared within the span of two years through researches and analysis of experts from different fields with relevance to disaster management. The document has been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to serve as a policy guideline for disaster management in Nigeria.