One million and seven hundred thousand Nigerian households were fed during the Covid-19 lockdown by the CACOVID private sector initiative.
This was disclosed by Mr. Herbert Wigwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Access bank, a member of the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID). CACOVID was an emergency business sector powered initiative raised against the dreaded novel coronavirus which shook and crippled the global economy for months currently leaving in its trail over 28million infected people, over 900million deaths and 20million recoveries, TheConscience reports.
In Nigeria, 55829 cases have been confirmed, 43810 cases have been discharged and 1075 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory till date.
The Bank CEO said it was at the forefront of Nigeria’s fight against the novel Coronavirus through the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) initiative working with several partners in the private sector, the coalition successfully pooled together funds which were deployed to deliver the financial, material and technical aid needed to save millions of lives, including feeding 1.7mn households across the country.
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“Being a systemically important Nigerian Bank, the company took decisive measures to keep the Nigerian economy going by committing resources through the CACOVID and other sources and providing the support needed by our customers, colleagues, and communities,” he noted.
The CEO made the remarks in its first half of the year report where the company recorded impressive results including a 22 per cent growth in its gross earnings despite despite the challenges and uncertainties occasioned by the COVID-19 Pandemic and high cost of operation and increase in net impairment charge.
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He said, “Understanding the adverse effects of the Pandemic on businesses especially SMEs, we implemented innovative measures to support the continuity of our SME customers. We leveraged our “SME Zone” platform to reach out to our customers with 85 capacity building programs that cut across Human Resources, Technology, Financial Management, etc. Over 183,000 customers were impacted by our weekly newsletters, and over 600 customers participated at our webinar sessions. These are all in addition to a 3-month concession on repayments of existing SME loans and easy access to working capital finance. Working with the Central Bank Nigeria, we also provided intervention funding and payment holidays to support the Agriculture, Manufacturing and Healthcare sector.”
