FG releases fresh N620m for fight against coronavirus

The federal government has released N620 million, the second tranche of funds, provided to address coronavirus.

Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, special adviser on media and communication to Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

Nigeria recorded its first case on February 24. The index case is an Italian who came into the country for business.

The virus has since been confirmed in seven African countries and at least 97 countries globally.

Abdullahi said the release and approval of the funds by President Muhammadu Buhari was based on emergency.

He said the first tranche of N364 million was earlier released, making a total of N984 million released to tackle the virus.

“The approval by President Muhammadu Buhari for the release of funds to tackle COVID-19 was an emergency and the process of releasing the fund was also an emergency as it was an unexpected expenditure,” the statement read.

“However, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning had released the first tranche of N364 million sometime ago and the process of releasing the second tranche has been concluded with the release  of N620 million this morning, bringing total release to N984 million.

“Responding to a media enquiry yesterday,  the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, promised  that the second tranche of the needed fund would be released today, which has been done, keeping to the promise.”

While on a tour of the isolation centre in Abuja, Senate President Ahmad Lawan had appealed to the federal government to release the