The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has raised $30million (N11billion) to support the federal government in battling against the novel coronavirus.
NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, who disclosed this on Friday in Abuja, said the intervention is in conjunction with its oil and gas industry partners and is to support the Federal Government’s efforts to stop COVID-19 spread in Nigeria.
The Director explained that it would enhance healthcare facilities and cover provision of medical consumables, deployment of logistics and in-patient support system and delivery of medical infrastructure.
He said:
“The three thematic support initiatives amount to a total of N11billion 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.”
It should be noted that, the NNPC partners include the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited, Oando Oil Limited, Oriental Energy Resources Limited, Pilar Oil Limited, Platform Petroleum Limited, ll and SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company Plc.
While others are Shoreline Natural Resources, Suntrust Oil Company Nigeria Limited, Vertex Energy Limited, Waltersmith Petroleum Oil Limited and Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Limited among others.
It would be recalled that, Nigeria recorded 16 new coronavirus cases on Friday, total now 81.