The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) on Tuesday pledged a sum of N200 million [$550,000] to support current effort of the Nigerian government towards curbing the spread of Corona Virus or Covid-19 in the country.
The intervention by Dangote is considered the largest single donation by a corporate organization in the country to contain the spread of coronavirus since Nigeria recorded its first index case last month in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssoufou, represented by the Health and Nutrition Programme Officer Maryam Shehu-Buhari, at a donor coordinating meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, March 3, said the donation was part of the Foundation’s cardinal objective of partnering with governments at all levels against the dreaded disease in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
The Foundation is also the only Nigerian donor that attended the meeting and made monetary pledge.
To this extent, she said the Aliko Dangote Foundation has earmarked N124 million that will support facilities to help prevent, assess and respond to health events at Point of Entry to ensure National Health Security.
Ms Youssoufou also highlighted other areas of intervention to include surveillance and epidemiology, where facilities worth N36million will be provided by the Foundation to support government’s effort.
According to her, the ADF will also donate N48million for case management training of health workers.
Speaking at the meeting facilitated by World Bank, the Country Director represented by the Operations Manager, Kathleen Whimp identified four thematic areas to tackling the spread of COVID-19
According to reports, there are a total of 90,936 confirmed cases worldwide – although more than half of those (47,995) have already recovered.
The biggest numbers are still by far in mainland China (80,151), followed by South Korea (4,812), Italy (2,036) and Iran (1,501).
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Japan has 274 confirmed cases, France 191, Germany 165, Spain 120, Singapore 108, US 106, and Hong Kong 100. There are also cases in South America, Africa and Australia.
The total death toll stands at 3,117 with 2,936 of those coming from China. The countries with the next highest numbers are Iran (66), Italy (52) and South Korea (29).
There have also been deaths in Japan, the US, France, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
Money well spent