Lagos State Government yesterday said that it had reached 440,000 households through its COVID-19 Emergency Food Response Initiative.
The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Gbolahan Lawal, who disclosed this during the donation of an eight-truck load of food items and an ambulance worth N82.5 million by the Lebanese community to the state government to support the fight against the COVID-19, said that despite the easing of the lockdown, the state government would continue the distribution of relief materials.
He, however, thanked the Lebanese community for the donation, which includes 43 essential food and other items worth N67.5 million and an ambulance worth N15 million, among others.
The Consul-General of Lebanon, Mr. Elias Nicolas, who presented the donation to the government on behalf of the community, commended the state government for the efforts made so far to contain the pandemic.
In another development, telecommunications companies have donated some medical equipment to Lagos State Government as part of efforts to halt the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The telecoms operators, under the aegis of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), yesterday, in Lagos, said the donation was made to support the efforts of the state government.
President of ATCON, Olusola Teniola, who presented the items, which include 2,000 pieces of locally-made face-masks and 18 dozen of 500ml alcohol hand sanitiser, through the Lagos State Ministry of Health, said that the donation was an attempt to further express the community’s solidarity and support for the good work of the state to stop further spread of COVID-19 in Lagos.
The state’s Commissioner for Transport, Dr. Fredrick Oladehinde, who received the items on behalf of the state government, said the donation would go a long way to help the government curb the spread of the disease.
In a related development, Interswitch Group has raised a total of N305 million towards the organisation’s COVID-19 response effort. Employees of the firm contributed N75 million and the company augmented their efforts with N230 million.
The firm said it was part of a co-ordinated effort to complement ongoing public and private sector initiatives to address the spread and mitigate the negative impact of the novel Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria.
