Ikeja Electric, the distributor that serves Nigeria’s commercial capital, dispatched health workers and community liaisons to two Lagos neighbourhoods on World Malaria Day, marking one of the company’s most visible corporate welfare drives since it rebranded its community engagement strategy two years ago.
The outreach, carried out simultaneously in Abule-Egba and Odogunyan, aligned with the 2026 World Malaria Day theme, “Driven to end malaria: Now we can. Now we must.”
Residents received on-the-spot malaria testing, antimalarial medication where needed, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and educational materials on prevention and early care-seeking behaviour.
“At Ikeja Electric, we recognise that our responsibility goes beyond providing electricity,” said Kingsley Okotie, Ikeja Electric spokesperson.
Community health educators at the event walked residents through the causes and symptoms of malaria, underscoring proper environmental sanitation and consistent net use as the most cost-effective defences against the disease, which remains one of Nigeria’s leading causes of morbidity and kills an estimated 300,000 Nigerians annually, according to health ministry figures.
Kingsley Okotie, the company’s spokesperson, framed the initiative as an extension of a broader corporate ethos.
“We believe that sustained awareness and access to preventive tools can significantly reduce the impact of malaria in our communities,” he said, adding that the firm intended to deepen partnerships with public-health stakeholders to sustain the gains.
The company also used the occasion to warn customers about electrical hazards that typically surge during Lagos’s rainy season, which typically begins in earnest through May and June. Flooded installations, exposed conductors, and downed wires present compounding risks in dense urban neighborhoods where overhead lines run close to homes and flood-prone streets.
Residents were urged to avoid approaching damaged or fallen wires, to keep electrical installations waterproofed, and to report emergencies via two dedicated hotlines: 0909-222-7299 and 0909-222-7799.
The dual message, public health on one hand, electrical safety on the other, reflects a pattern the company has deployed before in the rainy season, bundling service and safety communication into single community touchpoints.
“Ikeja Electric remains dedicated to delivering value to its customers through reliable power supply, continuous stakeholder engagement, and meaningful CSR interventions that improve quality of life,” Okotie said, reiterating what the distributor describes as a three-pillar framework of community engagement, safety advocacy, and sustainable impact.
The outreach adds to a body of non-electricity programming that Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies have increasingly leaned into in recent years, as regulators and customers alike press for more visible social returns on the tariff revenues these firms collect. Ikeja Electric serves roughly four million metered and unmetered customers across Lagos state, giving its community programs outsized reach compared with most Nigerian districts.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
