Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote has pledged N200 million to support the current effort of the Nigerian government towards curbing the spread of Corona Virus or Covid-19 in the country.
In the wake of the outbreak, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also pledged up to $100 million to combat the coronavirus.
Through his foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), in a statement released on Tuesday, considered the intervention to be the largest single donation by a corporate organisation in the country to contain the spread of coronavirus since Nigeria recorded its first index case last month in Lagos, Nigeria.
Zouera Youssoufou, MD/CEO of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, at a donor coordinating meeting in Abuja, on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020, said the donation was part of the Foundation’s cardinal objective of partnering with governments at all levels against the dreaded disease in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
ADF sets aside N48 million for case management training of health workers
Youssoufou represented by the Health and Nutrition Programme Officer, Maryam Shehu-Buhari, said the ADF will also donate N48 million for case management training of health workers.
Other donors invited to the meeting include WHO, UNICEF, BMGF, RTSL, EU, USAID, US CDC, DFID, Public Health England, GIZ, JICA, Africa CDC, WAHO, PHI, MTN, Red Cross, IFRC and AFENET.
More than 90,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide
According to reports, there are a total of 90,936 confirmed cases worldwide – although more than half of those (47,995) have already recovered. The biggest numbers are still by far in mainland China (80,151), followed by South Korea (4,812), Italy (2,036) and Iran (1,501). Japan has 274 confirmed cases, France 191, Germany 165, Spain 120, Singapore 108, US 106, and Hong Kong 100. There are also cases in South America, Africa, and Australia.
The total death toll stood at 3,117 with 2,936 of those coming from China as at Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020. The countries with the next highest numbers are Iran (66), Italy (52), and South Korea (29). There have also been deaths in Japan, the US, France, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
In 2014, the Aliko Dangote foundation also committed N1 billion in the fight against the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Africa, helping to build resilience and strengthen Nigeria’s health system in a manner expected to endure beyond the Ebola crisis period.
Source: PulseNigeria
