The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN is prepared to partner the private sector to combat coronavirus in Nigeria.

This came as Lagos State commissioned an ultra-modern disease isolation centre in Yaba.

According to him, the unveiling of the newly built isolation centre will definitely help in boosting the capacity of Nigeria’s healthcare system towards containing the spread of COVID-19 in Lagos state and CBN is ready to play its role.

He added that our inability to accurately predict the extent to which the virus could spread and how long it will last means we need to build a sufficient capacity within our healthcare system to remain safe.

His words, “The launch of the newly built isolation centre will surely help in boosting the capacity of Nigeria’s healthcare system towards containing the spread of COVID-19 in Lagos state. The CBN is ready to work with the private sector and support any initiative in tackling this pandemic.”

“The Nigerian economy was exposed to a twin shock, a public health crisis and revenue shock driven primarily by 55 per cent drop in crude oil prices between January and May 2020.

“This un-parallel shock must require that all state governments along with the organised private sector to work together to address these challenges in order to preserve lives and restore economic activities in our country. We have implemented several initiatives to cushion the effects of the pandemic which include the N50 billion intervention facility for house-hold and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMEs that were adversely affected by the pandemic; N100 billion facility for the health and pharmaceutical sector and an N1 trillion facility for the agricultural and manufacturing firms of the economy.

“Our inability to accurately predict the extent to which the virus could spread and how long it will last requires that we build a sufficient capacity within our healthcare system in order to prevent the spread of the virus and preserve the lives of vulnerable Nigerians and this requires that all parties come together in order to deal with this great challenge”.