Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Godwin Obaseki, Kayode Fayemi and Adullahi Sule of Lagos, Edo, Ekiti and Nasarawa, respectively, have pledged to increase support for small scale businesses and diversify the economy to boost the economy of their states amid the threat of Covid-19 pandemic.
The governors also urged Nigerians to abide by guidelines put in place by various state governments across the country to check the spread of the pandemic.
The state chief executive officers stated this on Friday while featuring in a Covid-19 webinar interactive session organised by the Emmanuel Chapel Methodist Church.
The programme was an opportunity for the governors to share experience and narrate efforts put in place to tackle the pandemic in their various states.
Speaking at the event, Governor Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State eluded to the fact that if the nation’s international airports and other entry points into the country were shut as early as possible, the number of the cases in the state may not have been as high as it is.
He said his administration had adopted another strategy in the distribution of palliatives to vulnerable people in the state because of the criticism which trailed the initial exercise.
Sanwo-Olu further disclosed that his administration had initiated strategies to check loss of job and support Small Scale Business (SME’s) with grant, stressing that he had further initiated meetings with top employers of labour in the state to regularly share ideas on how to sustain the economy.
“Every two weeks I hold meetings with top employers, with NECA to review, agree and look at what they want government to do. I have been telling them not to sack any worker; let’s keep the staff afloat; this year would come and go and we would all come back to our position,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti State, said the state had achieved significant level of success in the management of Covid-19 patients because it started preparation early by setting up a committee which he chaired.
On methods adopted in the distribution of palliatives in the state, the governor said the administration had been able to distribute palliatives to 100,000 households and 60,000 people because it adopted a unique strategy which had been a success.
Fayemi said governors across the country had recently come together to devise a common strategy and develop a framework for the tackling of the pandemic in the country unlike in the early days when the pandemic was first discovered in Nigeria.
“Since the virus came into Nigeria we started preparing early; we set up a committee which I chaired with political and community leaders also involved,” he said.
According to him, “We have a unique way of sharing the palliatives; for now 100,000 households and 6000 people have benefited from our palliatives,” Fayemi added.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki said his administration had been able to distribute palliatives to 10,000 households because the administration worked with religious and traditional institutions in the state to identity the poorest people in the society.
Obaseki further canvassed for a diversification of the nation’s economy, hinting that his administration had initiated programmes to support SMEs, boost agriculture across the state in a bid to also boost the economy, while covid-19 test open centres had been created across the state.
“We had to contact the schools and the churches and traditional institutions to identity the vulnerable people to share palliatives to. We would be focusing on agriculture, supporting SMEs to create jobs and investment,” Obaseki said.
Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule said the state had just taken delivery of millions of face masks and had begun the sharing to indigenes of the state.
Sule said the state had not enforced lockdown because most indigenes of the state were farmers and small traders; he however, added that repatriation of Ahmajirai to their states of origin was necessary because some of them had tested positive to the coronavirus.
“We can’t just lock down; our people are farmers and traders; we are on top of the situation, and we are carrying out testing. We have also ordered face masks which we would distribute across the state,” he said.
