By Stephen Adewale
The Chairman, BUA Group, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, has made a whopping donation of N3.3billion towards the fight to curb the community spread of the Coronavirus pandemic presently ravaging the country.
It would be recalled that the BUA Group had earlier announced a one billion naira contribution to other states in the country.
Following the newly announced N3.3 billion donation to Lagos and Kano states, Rabiu and his group have now donated N4.6 billion to the fight against COVID-19, making them the single highest donor as at date.
Making this revelation in a letter dated April 24, 2020, the billionaire businessman, congratulated the duo of the Task Force and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for doing a good job so far, while observing that in as much as so much has been done, there is still need to do a lot more, as the disease continues to make inroads into many parts of the country, especially Lagos and Kano states.
Rabiu said he assessed with deep concern, the increased rate of spread of the Coronavirus, especially in Kano and Lagos states despite concerted collective efforts to curb the spread and effects of the virus in Nigeria.
“To this end, I am immediately committing and making available, through the BUA Foundation, two grants of N2billion for the Kano-based intervention, and N1billion for Lagos State, being the two epicentres of this virus in Nigeria.” He said.
Rabiu also announced that the sum of N300 million will also be made available immediately in cash to the Presidential Task Force to assist with logistical and operational activities of the taskforce. This grant is in addition to BUA’s earlier contributions to the private sector led CA-COVID coalition and donations to other states.
Giving instruction on how the funds will be disbursed, the BUA Foundation Chairman maintained that the working Group will be expected to use resources at its disposal to ensure these facilities to be determined by the Working Group, are fully equipped in the shortest possible time.
*Read Full Statement of the BUA Group Below*:
“I view with deep concern, the increased rate of spread of the coronavirus especially in Kano and Lagos despite concerted collective efforts to curb the spread and effect of the virus in Nigeria. I also wish to commend the leadership shown by the taskforce as well as the NCDC in this fight. However, we all know that more needs to be done.
“Based on what is going on especially in Kano at the moment, we have decided in the immediate, to commit a N3.3 billion grant to a working group made of the presidential taskforce, the NCDC, and other stakeholders in equipping two existing permanent facilities in Kano and Lagos States – whilst collaborating with the teaching hospitals in those states.
“To this end, I am immediately committing and making available, through the BUA Foundation, two grants of two billion naira for the Kano-based intervention, and one billion naira for Lagos State being the two epicentres of this virus in Nigeria. A sum of 300 million naira will also be made available immediately in cash to the presidential task force to assist with logistical and operational activities of the task force. These grants are in addition to BUA’s earlier contributions to the private sector-led CA-COVID coalition and donations to other states.”
“The working group will be expected to use resources at its disposal to ensure these facilities to be determined by the working group, are fully equipped in the shortest possible time. I believe this will effectively help to expand the scope of interventions, ongoing research, as well as support already stretched medical facilities dedicated to this fight.”
“We look forward to receiving at the earliest, grant proposals from the working group.”
While Lagos has so far recorded 689 cases with 19 deaths, Kano, which recorded its index case about two weeks ago, has 77 cases and one confirmed death. Kano State has also recorded over 200 deaths due to reasons yet to be ascertained with 24 high-profile deaths in the past 24 hours.
