FG aided 56 firms’ growth during lockdown

The Federal Government has revealed that it assisted in boosting the production capacity of about ten ventilator companies, 46 producers of hand sanitisers during the COVID-19 lockdown.

This was disclosed on Wednesday in Abuja by the Chairman of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) of the Committee on Sustainable Production and Delivery of Essential Commodities during COVID-19, Tijani Inuwa.

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“During the period of the inter-state travel ban, the committee received and resolved 121 cases of complains. Out of these 121 cases, about 76 per cent of the challenges related to movement of manufacturing and pharmaceutical products,” Inuwa said.

Speaking while giving awards to the members of the EOC, the Trade Minister, Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo, said, “For the first time in our nation, we all have to come together to tackle the vulnerability that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed.”

The Minister of State for Trade, Mrs Mariam Katagum, said, “From what happened during the pandemic, everyone was either producing a facemask or sanitisers. So what stops us after the pandemic to produce anything that we want to produce that we have the talent to do?”