BUA Foundation has donated five ambulances and 20 Hilux vehicles to assist the Kano state government in stemming the spread of the virus in the State as part of its COVID-19 Health Infrastructure and Response Grant for Kano State.
BUA Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Africa’s leading foods and infrastructure conglomerate, BUA Group founded by Abdul Samad Rabiu.
Speaking while presenting the vehicles to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Abdul Samad Rabiu noted that a united effort is needed to curtail the coronavirus pandemic which continues to take its toll on the lives of Nigerians and businesses. Represented by the Government Relations Director, BUA Group, Dr. Idi Hong, Abdul Samad stated that the vehicles will enable the Kano government tackle the pandemic head-on so that lives can return to its normal state.
Rabiu said: “I should tell you that these vehicles and ambulances are to support the state government’s good effort in controlling this COVID-19 pandemic from contact tracing to movement of supplies, logistics and also, quick response to clinical cases.”
In his response, the state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, said they were happy for the donation noting that it has come at the right time because transportation is very essential in conveying those saddled with the responsibility of taking care of victims of COVID-19.
Ganduje said, “There is no doubt we have opened collection centres in all the 44 local government areas of the state. For the distant local governments, there is one collection centre each. But for the eight metropolitan local governments, we are opening about 100 collection centres so that we can feed the laboratories at testing centres with enough samples each day.
“There is no doubt we have to increase our capacity in collecting samples, and it would probably lead to house-to-house in the collection of samples. The more we collect samples, the more we understand the seriousness of the situation and put frameworks in place to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
“So in short, we have all that it takes at the moment in order to fight the pandemic. We are building our capacity with the help of technical teams from the Presidential Task Force in Abuja. We will swing into action by tomorrow as some policy statements would be made in respect of the new fight against the coronavirus.”
