By Ralph Chris Izokpu
In a bid to help boost the technical capacity of the ministry of health, the Victim Support Fund (VSF) on Tuesday donated Information Communication Technology (ICT) equipment and One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira support to the ministry.
Presenting the items on Tuesday in Abuja, the Chairperson of Victims Support Fund Covid:19 Task Force, Mrs ToyosinAkerele- Ogunsiji said that the gesture is aimed at boosting of COVID-19 data collection.
Akerele- Ogunsiji, said that the laptop, printers and other ICT equipment was donated to the ministry of health to support the data collection.
She said: “We believe that health care is not just about providing medication and drugs, but the human capital and the quality of the human capacity within the ministry, will determine to a very long extends the successes that the ministry is going to achieve in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to her, “We supported the National Center For Disease Control, NCDC, with Telecom and surveillance equipment to be able to coordinate their meetings from Abuja here and across the 36 states and also we have provided a lot of institutional support to relevant government agencies to be able to wrap up the level of response that was provided at the states and local government levels.”
She added, “We have visited the minister to pledge our support to the federal ministry of health that the ministry is at the epicenter of the entire exercise and you have been the one coordinating the entire national response stretagic challenges of the COVID-19 and we would like you to guard us in some of the things we have done.”
Akerele-Ogunsiji noted that the organisation is committed to support the country in area of education, infrastructural development as well as research and peace building across the country.
She further said that information dissemination is the epicentre of this pandemic and we want to improve the capacity of the NCDC with data collection and coordinating all of the states of the federation from one central location in Abuja.
The Minister of health Dr.OsagieEhanire, who appreciated the Victim Support Fund for the donation, said it will help in further boosting the technical capacity of the ministry.”
