Airtel Begins Initiative to Feed 5,000 IDPs

Emma Okonji

Airtel Nigeria has announced the commencement of the 2020 edition of its annual ‘5 Days of Love’ Yuletide initiative with a focus on providing palliative packs to 5,000 persons across five Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the country.

Speaking during a virtual press conference to announce the initiative, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, said despite the pandemic and a difficult year, Airtel would continue its long standing tradition of celebrating and empowering the vulnerable and underprivileged during Yuletide.

“Our resolve to Nigeria and Nigerians is unshakeable. Despite a difficult year, we are committed to making lives better for many Nigerians and we will not rest on our laurels as we will continue to create opportunities for underprivileged Nigerians.

“We believe little things can make a difference and as we continue to support the vulnerable and the underprivileged in our society, events will take a positive turn. At Airtel, we believe that to be great, we must first be good. It is in this spirit that we have chosen to celebrate this Yuletide with underprivileged and underserved persons across the country,” he said.

Airtel said it would be distributing food palliative packs to 5,000 vulnerable families in IDP camps across the country. 1,000 palliative packs will be distributed to select IDP camps in 5 cities across the country over a period of 5 days.

Currently in its sixth year, the 2020 edition of the ‘5 Days of Love’ initiative kicked off in Benue State on 18th December, 2020 at the Daudu IDP camp and will move to Edo State on Tuesday, 22nd December, at the International Christian Centre Benin City as well as in Borno State at the Teacher’s village same day.
On Wednesday 23rd December, the distribution will be concluded at the Abbari YBC camp in Yobe State, and likewise in Kaduna State at the Sabin Tasha camp, just in time for Christmas.

Ogunsanya also assured that Airtel would continue to collaborate and partner with the government in the ongoing fight against Coronavirus, noting that the fight against the dreaded virus is not over yet.

He also highlighted some definitive steps Airtel had taken to curtail the spread of the virus.
“Although I do not like throwing figures, we expended over N1.97Bn providing relief for Nigerians during the lockdown and at the height of the pandemic. My colleagues, from their pockets, donated N20m to provide relief materials for indigent persons during the lockdown.

“We also donated N50m each to the Lagos State Government and the Ogun State Government in their fight against COVID-19. We are currently renovating an Infectious Disease Centre at the Lagos State University and we have committed N200 million to the project.

“Airtel further committed various sums and support in kind covering donations to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Federal Ministry of Health and Port Health Authority, State Governments, the Federal Governments just as we also reached out to our dear customers by offering free Short Message Service (SMS) worth over N1.2 billion,” Ogunsanya said.