MTN says it has donated equipment to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as the country grapples with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

MTN Nigeria understands the vital role network and services play in supporting people, organisations and institutions nationwide, according to its Senior Manager, External Relations, Funso Aina.

“Government realises the critical nature of the services we and our colleagues provide and is doing everything to ensure services are not interrupted,” the Guardian quoted him as saying.

He also said that “through our support, the NCDC will be able to roll out an outbreak response management and analysis system, which will enhance the capacity of each state to strengthen preparedness and respond appropriately.”

Aina said the support package included: 1,200 SIMs, each provisioned with N100, 000 (for calls/SMS) and 3GB monthly; for an initial period of six (6) months; 38 Toll-free lines (premium numbers) at no cost to NCDC; 38 Smart Feature phones for the toll-free lines; 10 MiFi devices, and daily COVID-19 prevention messages to all MTN subscribers.

“We continue engaging with government and our stakeholders, in pursuit of new ways to leverage our core expertise, technology and infrastructure to support government’s efforts to keep citizens safe. In the next few days, we believe that the various conversations around partnerships will start yielding visible results,” he stated.

The NCDC confirmed four new cases of coronavirus in the country on Tuesday evening, taking the total number of infections to 139.

According to the NCDC, three of the cases are in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, while one is in Lagos, which houses most of the 139 cases confirmed so far.