By Henry Uche

The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has commended African Foundries Ltd, AFL (a subsidiary of African Industries Group) a major manufacturer of Steel rebar, iron rods in Nigeria, having received 1000 Cylinders from AFL during the heat of covid-19 pandemic.

A management team of LUTH led by the Chief Medical Director, Professor Chris Bode, made this appreciation recently at AFL’s production site in Ogijo, Ogun State, during a courtesy visit, saying AFL has shown altruism and humane disposition by its rescue mission to LUTH, persons affected with covid-19 and Nigerians at large.

The Chief Medical Director added that, “We shall be ingrate if we don’t come to show appreciation having received about 1000 cylinders. The need for Cylinders and oxygen was dire and receiving oxygen from African Foundries was like a manner from above. AFL has shown love for the nation and humanity by coming in when we were in dearth of Oxygen. Recall that the need for Oxygen and other facilities were higher than any other part of the country even till date, We hope other well meaning Nigerians would be their brothers’ keeper like AFL has shown.

He implored all and Sundry to work harmoniously towards boosting the health of the nation as no country would do anything without a guaranteed health. “Every human activity is dependent on good health. So both the government and the governed, people in both the Public and private sectors and individuals alike should contribute their quotas towards improving our health sector. AFL has done something, it’s expected that we all follow suit in any capacity we can, hence everything we do on earth is a function of sound health,” he charged.

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Reacting, the Group Executive Director of AFL, Uche Iwuamadi, who spoke on behalf of the company’s Group Managing Director, Mr Alok Gupta, said the gesture was part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility pointing that no time would have been more apt to show love to mankind than the pandemic period.

Iwuamadi maintained that the company does not produce oxygen nor any medical facility per se, but its oxygen were for making its steel and other products, however out of exigency and in the spirit of brotherhood, the company decided to convert them into oxygen for human use.

“Production of medical Oxygen is not our core business, but when covid-19 struck, we came together and decided on how we could help ameliorate the health emergency, so we chose to give them out to so many hospitals in the country,”

He added that AFL was ready to partner any group for nation building in any capacity, adding that the Chairman of African Industries Group, Mr. Raj Gupta is a founding member of Coalition Against Covid (CA-COVID) and the oxygen donated all over country were part of CA-COVID. “We couldn’t give oxygen to Steel while people were dying. So to us, Life is more important than anything in this world. We are happy so many lives were saved by our gesture. Nevertheless, we are willing to collaborate with individuals and groups to offer more to humanity through our products and services,” he affirmed.