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Old Mutual commits N$5 million to fighting COVID-19

Old Mutual commits N$5 million to fighting  COVID-19

Old Mutual Namibia has pledged N$5 million to nation-wide efforts to help address some of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funding will be used in specific areas of support including provision of food to the poor and the vulnerable communities; technical equipment and allowances for payment of recruited medical professionals.

From the N$5 million, N$1 million will be used for the supply and delivery of non-perishable foods to the poor, old age homes, orphanages as well as vulnerable communities. Old Mutual Namibia’s marketing communication’s executive, Ndangi Katoma said the company recognises that a large portion of the poor and the vulnerable receive their limited income from daily/hourly labour which they will not be able to earn during the lockdown.

Another N$1,7 million will be used to acquire testing equipment, broaden scale of testing and the procurement of test kits with an additional N$1 million set to be used to strengthen the tracing capacity including equipment, tools and services required for effective tracing.

“Experience gained and lessons learned from countries that have been fighting the impact of Covid-19 reveal that large scale testing followed by effective tracing and isolation and treatment significantly contribute to early ‘flattening of the exponential infection curve’ which will alleviate the pressure on our limited health facilities,” Katoma said.

Furthermore, N$1.3 million is geared towards the payment of allowances to temporarily recruited medical professionals such as recently graduated medical students and nurses who might be recalled by the government to assist.

“We join and encourage other actors in our society to do more in collectively preventing COVID-19,” said Old Mutual Group CEO, Kosmas Egumbo.


 

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Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys