The intervention of the private sector in the ongoing fight against coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Nigeria has come with some significant socio-economic benefits. This gives hope of a sustained management of a pandemic, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned may not be eradicated in a long time to come.
The social intervention of the collaboration involving about 50 of Nigeria’s corporate players, the Federal Government and some of its agencies and development partners under the aegis of the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), is three-pronged.
It involves building of world-class testing, isolation and treatment centres for the management and treatment of COVID-19 cases across the country; advocacy to get Nigerians involved in the fight against the pandemic and distribution of palliatives to the less privileged who bear the brunt of the various lockdowns across the country.
Sources say the collaboration is the brainchild of Herbert Wigwe, managing director/CEO of Access Bank, who was spurred by the desire to sustain the bank’s tradition of leading initiatives and rising to the occasion when leadership is required in times of crisis.
Without doubt, the intervention has had enormous benefits for the country’s healthcare delivery as it affects the fight against COVID-19. Barely four months since the collaboration came into place on March 26, the impact of the exercise is being felt across the country. In a rare show of patriotism in pursuit of a national cause, the coalition was able to mobilise over N29 billion through donations from its members for the execution of the laudable projects involved in the exercise.
The CACOVID has so far built 32 highly sophisticated testing, isolation and treatment centres across the country, equipped with facilities that are comparable to those in other parts of the world. This has enabled ramping up of tests, which reflects in the high number of confirmed cases recorded every day, with corresponding increase in the number of persons regularly treated and discharged.
The latest addition to the list of such facilities is a 150-bed isolation and treatment centre the coalition donated on June 28, 2020, to the Lagos State government. The centre, which is equipped with facilities to handle moderate to severe cases of COVID-19, brings to six the number of centres dedicated to the treatment of such cases in the state that remains the epicentre of the pandemic in the country.
At the occasion, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, commended the coalition for its effort in mobilising resources in a short period to support the government’s emergency response to COVID-19, expressing belief that the centre would strengthen the state’s healthcare system to enable it deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic. He said the centre would be used to provide adequate treatment to those affected by the Coronavirus and also help in containing the spread of the virus in the state.
The coalition has built similar centres in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; Kano, Rivers, Enugu, Bornu, Kwara and Ondo states. Construction of such facilities is currently ongoing in Anambra, Bayelsa, Ogun, Katsina, Bauchi and Plateau states.
The target is to build 39 centres by the end of July 2020. This would ensure that states across the country have fully-equipped testing, isolation and treatment centre. It will have tremendous impact on the fight against COVID-19 in the country, and will go a long way in slowing its spread, since testing and treatment of confirmed cases will be handled all over the country.
Reports say the high rate of recovery at available centres is significantly aided by availability of world-class equipment and facilities that enable healthcare workers to provide the kind of services that are required to handle a virus the world is still learning about, which is evident in the fact that almost on a daily basis, new information emerges about its nature and behaviour. Patients are treated in environments considered the most conducive for a disease that has overwhelmed health systems around the world.
The social intervention of CACOVID also involves sensitisation of Nigerians for the purpose of getting them to participate fully in a fight that is a matter of life and death. The coalition is driving home the message that though testing positive for the virus is not a pronouncement of a death sentence, availability of fully-equipped centres is not an encouragement to get infected. They admonish Nigerians to adhere strictly to the safety guidelines stipulated by WHO and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), as the only guarantee to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, save lives and livelihoods.
This has become necessary in view of the generally perceived lukewarm attitude of Nigerians to observation of the guidelines, as the country enters the second phase of the easing of lockdowns that were put in place at the onset of the pandemic in the country.
The coalition recognizes that the lockdowns have imposed considerable hardship on Nigerians on the lower rung of the economic ladder, who depend on daily incomes to be able to eat. It therefore made distribution of essential food items to this segment of the population in all the 774 local government areas in the country part of its intervention. This has been the most far reaching of such interventions in the country, against the background of complaints that the various palliatives interventions have not reached the generality of those for which it is intended.
The private sector intervention in the fight against COVID-19 has the guarantee of durability, as it is expected to last as long as it would take to eliminate the pandemic from the country. This is a show of the sector’s solidarity with the government in this period of crisis, and its determination to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the government to fight a common enemy.
The selfless effort of the private sector in this exercise is underscored by the fact that it has put aside profit motives to support the government in a fight that is aimed at ensuring Nigerians survive the pandemic.
