After Nigeria was left out of consideration by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), other global bodies are coming to assist the country manage the ravaging Coronavirus ( COVID-19) pandemic.
In this direction, the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday announced that it received EUR 1.2 million from the European Union (EU) for the provision of lifesaving preparedness and response activities for COVID-19 in Nigeria.
Communications Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.
The UN said the support was due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, along with concerns around the need to drastically scale-up public health preparedness and response.
It also said that the humanitarian funding received would further the UN’s COVID-19 response in Nigeria.
This, it said, would be by engaging with communities on how to best protect themselves from the virus and providing essential health supplies where they were needed most.
It said, “With these critical funds from the EU, the UN as a whole in Nigeria is in a better position to do the important work of engaging with communities on how they can prevent the spread of this virus.
“It will also complement the government’s efforts to ensure that healthcare workers can continue the critical work they are already doing to test and treat cases in the country,” it quoted Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.
“Where we have funded close to €271.5 million (116 billion NGN) in emergency food aid, shelter, access to clean water, hygiene and sanitation, and basic primary healthcare since 2014,” it also quoted Thomas Conan, Head of the EU’s Humanitarian Aid Office in Nigeria.”
It said that with EU funding, UNICEF would be contributing to the efforts underway in the country to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate its effects.
It added that it would help with the emergency response to identified cases, as well as prevention and preparedness measures for possible future outbreaks in crowded cities and camps for internally displaced people in Nigeria’s north-east region.
It said that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and global health leaders around the world, are advising that physical distancing, washing of hands on a regular basis and staying at home will help significantly to halt the progress of the virus.