Sahara Group has donated medical equipment to the public health institutions in the country to boost healthcare delivery, as the country continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Executive Director of the Sahara Group, Temitope Shonubi, who spoke during the commissioning of the THISDAY Dome COVID-19 Isolation and Treatment Centre in Abuja, the donation is part of the group’s efforts to promote humanity.
“We are not just promoting our business at Sahara Group. We are promoting humanity. All the equipment Sahara Group has provided to the isolation centre through the Sahara Foundation will be donated to the Federal Ministry of Health when the pandemic is over.
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We believe this will shore up the availability of this equipment in some of our tertiary medical institutions. This for us is in line with the sustainability principle that guides all our interventions at our locations across the globe” Shonubi said.
He noted that the pandemic had triggered an impressive level of public and private coalition towards boosting and transforming the health system in the country and that the Sahara Group will continue to work with the Ministry of Health to determine how the group can send additional equipment to other centres in the country.
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“It is great to see how collaboration between the private and public sector is advancing our response to the pandemic robustly. All stakeholders have worked tirelessly and collectively to make the process of bringing in medical equipment and establishing more centres seamless. Sahara Group is delighted and honoured to be part of such positive partnerships that can only enhance the well-being of all Nigerians.” he added.
On how Africa should respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, Shonubi advised that the continent needs to develop “homegrown” capacity to facilitate the adoption of sustainable policies and processes for handling natural and other emergencies.
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“Africa by Africans is a favourite phrase of mine. A lot of people will say Africa for Africans, no. Africa is for everybody but what we must do is to make sure we participate in our destiny, we must make sure that we enforce what is best for Africa. In the past, we usually depend on the outside world for several forms of intervention.
“If we do not have the capacity locally at times like this, it becomes a daunting challenge for all Africans. It is this reality that has made the private sector join forces to boost our capacity. We hope to see much more demonstration of Africa by Africa across the continent,” he stated.