Abu’s Market partners to tackle hunger amid coronavirus spread

With millions of Lagosians struggling to get access to food amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, ABU’s Market have launched an initiative to tackle hunger amid the virus spread by providing home delivery of essential items for vulnerable Nigerians.

Rotimi Deji, founder, Hills Harvest, said this idea was born out of the need to reduce community spreading within the state, as home delivery will keep people indoors while providing them with a sense of inclusion.

“The Abu’s Market a subsidiary of Hills Harvest started as a strategy to address issues along the farming supply chain between farmers of Eweko Farmers’ Cooperative in Lagos and the consumers,” Rotimi said.

He adds that the initiative will also help farmers reduce their post-harvest losses as fresh food produces gets to the consumers on time.

He stated that Lagos is the epic center of coronavirus in the country with a large number of its population at risk of having the worst hit of the virus, adding that most of the residents live below the poverty line of $2 per day.

“In a country like Nigeria, where about half of the population lives on less than $2 per day, many families would need to be supported to survive the crisis and the government’s stimuli alone simply cannot do it,” he said.

Read also: Covid-19: Lagos may reinforce lockdown to stem community transmission

“In response to this hunger crisis, Abu’s market launched a care package offer which included basic food needs for a family for six for a 21days period; rice (5kg), yam(2 big tubers), garri (5kg), vegetable oil (1ltr), Red palm oil (75cl), salt (500g), seasoning(100 cubes), semovita(5kg) and tomatoe paste (10 sachettes) with a call for NGOs, churches, mosques and private individuals to partner to support these vulnerable families that are in dire need to survive,” he said.

“Without adequate food supply these families will defy the lockdown order to find survival food while stimulating community spreading of the virus,” he added.

Since the launch of the care package , Abu’s Market has partnered with Ejiroghene and Victoria Madedor in collaboration with LBS Agribusiness Management Programme (Class 13) to get food delivered to over 300 families within the densely populated areas in Ajegunle, Makoko, Bariga, and Ojuelegba among others in the state.

Joy a widow living at Onipa and a beneficiary of the care package provided by the organisation appreciated Abu’s Market for their support to vulnerable Nigerians.
“Since the lockdown, I have been unable to feed my children but I am unable to earn any income,” she said.

To ensure timely delivery, Abu’s Market also partnered with some bike riders for the delivery of the essential food items without the consumers incurring any additional cost, thus, creating jobs for the rider.

“Riders help bring produces from its aggregation hub to homes at a much faster rate,” Rotimi who was earlier quoted said.

Unfortunately more needs to be done as breadwinners of families are losing their jobs due to the lockdown necessitated by the pandemic given that organisations can no longer afford to keep them, while some have suffered from pay cut of up to 70percent in some instance, he says.

Abu’s market is calling on Individuals and organisations in the country and diaspora in collaboration with OAP Tunji Andrews to support those who have lost their jobs as some are now placed in the vulnerable category.

Nigerians can contact Abu’s Market on 0818 870 0800 or@AbusMarket @HillsharvestNG on twitter.