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From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), a private sector task force launched on March 26, 2020 to support the government’s fight against the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, has pooled N100 billion to bolster the fight against terrorism and other civil disturbances.
This is coming on the heels of the announcement by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, that credit to agriculture will see a 10 per cent increase in weeks ahead, as a strategic move to tackle food insecurity; while sustaining all existing intervention programmes.
The Chairman, UBA Group, Mr Tony Elumelu, who made the N100 billion intervention fund known at the 2022 edition of the Group Chairman’s Forum in Abuja on Saturday, described Emefiele as a dogged technocrat that has achieved great economic feats despite ferocious headwinds that acted as momentum retardants.
According to him, “the CBN Governor has attempted to do what many haven’t done before. He said we should create a coalition to bring private sector players together to help the country.
“Every Monday, we gather and discuss the development of Nigeria. We discuss a wide range of issues; healthcare, security, economy, manufacturing etc. The Coalition is co-Chaired by Aliko Dangote.
“At the onset of COVID-19, even though it’s not totally over yet, all of us in the private sector came together under the coalition and set up isolation centres and spent at least N60 billion on that.
“On vaccination, we were also there and ensured we opened up the country because if we didn’t, the economy would crash. We spent much on vaccination and supporting government agencies to make it happen.
“Emefiele has a robust passion for Nigeria. When I see such things, I get excited and encouraged. Many of us wanted to go our separate ways. He said no and created this platform that has helped us discuss better and we can see the results.
“Another issue is that we’ve put in N100 billion to help fight insecurity and boost the capacity of the security agencies to fight criminality and ultimately make the country safe. It’s just a way to incentivise them.
“We shall talk about food security and youth employment. The two are the most important issues and existential ones at that”, Elumelu disclosed.
In his speech at the event, Emefiele charged UBA to leverage on its knowledge of the local economy to lend to households and businesses, as well as provide tailored products and services that meet the needs of their customers in these critical sectors. He added that by supporting them, the bank would automatically make communities thrive.
The CBN Governor said Nigeria and indeed Africa, has no business being poor as the resources needed for wealth creation were in abundance on the continent.
