Lafarge opens N500m Covid-19 intervention

Lafarge Africa has deployed a N500m intervention fund to provide medical infrastructure, food and essential medications to its host communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first phase of the intervention’s launch, the firm converted two of its facilities in Sagamu and Ashaka to be used as isolation centres, and also provided infrastructure support such as generators, ambulances and critical personal protection equipment (PPE) for health professionals in its host states.

In the second phase, Lafarge distributed food and medical supplies to its host communities targeting 60,000 beneficiaries across 10,000 families.

Ashaka managing director, Ibrahim Aminu, said in a statement that the isolation centre would improve the capacity of the state government to accommodate and properly treat infected patients without putting the lives of others at risk.

While presenting the relief materials to residents in Lagos Island East Local Government Area of Lagos State, the country chief executive officer of Lafarge, Khaled El Dokani said,  “We are happy to work with them to improve lives through our presence and active citizenship. As a committed corporate citizen that has manufactured cement and supplied innovative building materials for over 60 years in Nigeria, the company is supporting the efforts of the Federal, State and Local Governments to fight COVID-19 in Nigeria.”

The Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Noimot Oyedele, commended the company during the formal hand-over of two ambulances and a fully-equipped isolation centre in Sagamu to support the medical efforts in Ogun State.