AMINA HUSSAINI
The Capital Market Support Committee on COVID-19 (CMSCC), has donated a brand new Toyota Hiace Ambulance vehicle and 1,400 cartons of bottled water to Rivers State Government.
The Head of Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Obi Adindu, presented the items on Friday to the representatives of the State Government led by the Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Princewill Chike.
Adindu commended the state government for its in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
He said, “The Nigerian Capital Market, upon the outbreak of the pandemic, set up the COVID-19 support committee which has a mandate to raise a billion naira with which to support the country at national and sub-national levels of government.’’
He said the committee had since the outbreak of the pandemic been sourcing funds from the capital market community.
“The donation we are witnessing today is actually the fourth in the series of our assets and material donations.
“The first donation happened in Abuja, the second took place in Lagos and the third in Kano.
“Today we are here in Port Harcourt, so you can see that there is national spread in the support that we are giving to the various state governments,” he said.
Adindu explained that the capital market’s main concern during this period of the pandemic is safety of Nigerians.
He expressed optimism that capital market activities will rebound after the flattening of the spread of virus.
“Even if the country’s economy experiences a depression as a result of the pandemic, certainly, we will definitely exit it once we are able to professionally manage the pandemic,” Adindu said.
Receiving the items, the Health Commissioner, commended SEC and the capital market community for the donation.
He added that the items would strengthen the fight against COVID-19 in the state.
He said that the state had since the onset of the pandemic taken delivery of several donations from corporate organisations, saying that a total of six ambulances as well as other medical deliverables had been received.
“Rivers State recorded her index case on March 27, 2020, and since then over 10,000 samples have been tested with about 1,800 positive samples recorded.
“Out of these 1,800 positive cases, the state has discharged over 1,700 patients from its various treatment centres while few fatalities were also recorded,” the commissioner said.
Comments are closed.