Coronavirus Pandemic
By Anayo Ezugwu
PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC Nigeria has rolled out N100 million interventions to support individuals, businesses, and government in responding to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Uyi Akpata, country and regional senior partner, PwC in West Africa, said the intervention fund was pulled from donations from partners, staff and alumni.
The firm in a statement said the COVID-19 intervention fund tagged “PwC Cares” was in line with the firm’s purpose of building trust in society and solving important problems. Akpata explained that the fund consists of a number of initiatives targeted at various sections of the society including vulnerable households, health workers and small businesses.
The firm is also leveraging her depth of knowledge and resources, especially around business and the economy to support governments both at the federal and states level in their economic response to the challenges posed by the Coronavirus situation.
“As well as having serious implications for people’s health and the healthcare services, COVID-19 is having a significant impact on businesses and the economy, particularly for Nigeria at this time given our dwindling resources and high level of poverty.
“As a firm, we are supporting a number of initiatives aimed at addressing the health and economic challenges in Nigeria. Notably, we are supporting the CBN led Coalition Against COVID-19 by the setup of a Project Management Office and providing project monitoring and evaluation support valued at about 50 million in the first instance. We are also providing food items to at least 5,500 vulnerable households, as well as personal protective equipment, PPEs, for frontline healthcare workers in the following states; Lagos, Ogun,Imo, Edo, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Kano and the FCT,” he said.
According to the statement, the donations of food items and medical materials, which are valued at N50 million was made possible through voluntary donations from her partners, staff and alumni community, who have risen to the occasion in line with the firm’s value of care and her agenda of having greater societal purpose. “This is in addition to pro bono complementary business continuity support services to small businesses employing between five to 50 employees, who undertake to retain all their staff during this period.
“It is clear that we still have a long way to go and we continue to learn to deal with the challenges. Therefore, now more than ever before, we see that partnerships between stakeholders, especially between public and private sector, is key to success. This is why in addition to the 100 million fund, we have also set up a COVID-19 Knowledge Centre accessible via our website to support Federal and State governments in their economic responses to the pandemic.”
The firm has demonstrated her clear intentions and resolve to help organisations and government respond to the pandemic and has hosted a series of free webinars on the economic implications and policy responses to COVID-19 during which it shares key insights on the situation, providing various response scenarios and generally engaging the business community on how to remain resilient through the crisis.
– May 14, 2020 @ 18:09 GMT |
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