Social enterprise transit media platform, KekeAds, has volunteered to partner with the United Nations, Imo State government and its Covid-19 response agencies like the Task Force and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to generate more awareness and help curb the spread of the dreaded pandemic in the state.
Mr. Esona Onuoha, managing director, Smate & Smate International, owner of the KekeAds trademark, said the organisation is ready to collaborate with the Imo State government to promote a sustainable epidemic awareness and controlled social distribution logistics network, using semi-skilled motor tricycle riders popularly known as Keke operators.
“KekeAds believes that the leadership and state task forces should proactively engage the riders and vehicles as they may be the most sustainable social distancing mass transit system we are yet to see in Nigeria, that will help reduce the spread of Covid-19.
“The aim is to train at least 50,000 motor tricycle riders as last-mile caregivers providing them with masks, gloves and disinfectants to use while carrying a single passenger at a time on essential trips and at the same time promoting healthcare messages across the nation,’ he said.
Unveiling the KekeAds CareGiver model in Owerri, capital of Imo State following the launch of the state’s Covid-19 Isolation Centre, the secretary to the Imo State government’s task force on Covid-19, Dr. Perry Njoku, stated that the “innovation from KekeAds provides a practical approach to sensitising the public and keeping the state moving in a controlled manner.”
SA to the Imo State governor, Mr. Chidi Onyebuchi, further assured the KekeAds’ team that the governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, had invited creative solutions to mitigating the sufferings of Imo citizens from the Covid-19 pandemic.