Uche Usim, Abuja
The battle against coronavirus in Nigeria got a boost on Friday as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) made an intervention of $30 million, that is N11 billion to help cushion the impact of the global pestilence on the Nigerian economy.
The Group Managing Director of the national oil company, Mr Mele Kyari, who made the disclosure said the intervention was done in collaboration with its partners in the oil and gas industry.
According to him, the move was consistent with the federal government’s ongoing efforts to curb COVID-19 spread in the country through a multi-sectoral approach.
Kyari added that the intervention aimed at supporting the country’s healthcare delivery facilities and would cover three major areas such as the “provision of medical consumables, deployment of logistics and in-patient support system, and delivery of medical infrastructure”
Kyari said, “The three thematic support initiatives amount to a total of USD 30 million (N11 billion naira) and will be delivered in phases, starting today.
“To address the increasing demand of medical services, we are immediately providing medical consumables covering testing kits, medical protective suits and ambulances to the highly impacted areas across the federation.
“This will be followed, in the next few days, with the deployment of ventilators, beds and temporary intensive care facilities across the geopolitical zones of the federation.”
The industry players that partnered with the NNPC to make the intervention include the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Ltd, Oando Oil Limited, Oriental Energy Resources Ltd, Pilar Oil Limited, Platform Petroleum Limited, SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company Plc, and Shoreline Natural Resources.
Others are Suntrust Oil Company Nigeria Limited, Vertex Energy Limited, Waltersmith Petroleum Oil Limited and Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Limited, among others.