Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The management of Lafarge Africa Plc has taken a step to safeguard the lives of its employees, customers and Nigerians following news that the Italian quarantined in Lagos for contracting the deadly coronavirus had a direct contact with one of its vendors.
On Friday morning, the Lagos State government confirmed the first case of coronavirus, renamed COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in the state.
The Minister of Health, Mr Osagie Ehanire, who also confirmed this in a press statement in Abuja, said the state government has kept the victim at a facility in Yaba.
While addressing newsmen in Ikeja this morning, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State said the Italian, who had a stop over in Turkey, had a brief business meeting in Lagos and Ogun State.
It was reported that his meeting at Ogun State was with vendor that provides services to Lafarge Africa Plc in the Gateway State, which shares border with Lagos State.
In a press statement issued by the Director of Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development at Lafarge Africa, Ms Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, the cement firm said, “As a business, we have immediately identified the persons who had direct contact with the concerned individual. We have equally initiated isolation, quarantine and disinfection protocol.”
“We thank the exemplary leadership of the federal ministry of health, Ogun and Lagos State Governments for swiftly providing response and testing facilities and we are working in full co-operation with all local authorities.
“Lafarge Africa is also working in close partnership with International SOS, our medical service provider, a leading global health company,” she said.
“Health and Safety remains a core value at Lafarge Africa and we intend to leverage this strength at this critical time,” Ms Ambrose-Medebem emphasised.
Lafarge Africa Plc currently has an installed cement production capacity of 10.5MTPA and has plans to grow in the near term. It has plants in Ewekoro and Sagamu in the South West, Mfamosing in the South-South and Ashaka in the North East of Nigeria.
The company is a member of the LafargeHolcim Group, the biggest building and concrete solutions company in the world. It is a publicly quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and serves Nigeria and South Africa with a wide range of building and construction solutions designed to meet housing and construction needs from small projects like individual home buildings to major construction and infrastructure projects.
