One of Africa’s leading integrated payment and digital commerce player, Interswitch, has announced a series of intervention measures as part of its efforts to help contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The company, in a bid to make a difference, raised N75m in an employee-led effort and the company adding N230m. This brings the total fund raised by the company to support the fight against COVID-19 to N305m.
According to the technology-driven firm, in a statement, the fund is “being deployed to provide support to federal and state governments as well as private sector-led initiatives. The primary focus of the fund is supporting the creation and equipment of isolation centres, purchasing COVID-19 test kits, providing personal protective gear and offering related support to frontline health workers and set up food banks for underprivileged communities in Lagos.”
Further, Interswitch has leveraged its core capabilities, as a technology company and systems integrator, to launch eClat healthcare initiative. The software application is user-friendly and locally nuanced, which is useful for members of the public as a frontline intervention for the assessment of risk and pre-disposition to the novel coronavirus infection.
The eClat Healthtech solution supporting state governments’ response to COVID-19 has been implemented in 20 states across the country. Lagos State’s Eti-Osa isolation centre, among other centres in Edo, Ogun and Oyo states, has deployed the application.
Commenting on his firm’s interventions roll-out, the founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Mitchell Elegbe, said, “Our efforts are underpinned by the realisation that this pandemic, if unchecked, is a potent threat to interactions, which facilitate entrepreneurship and commerce, without which inclusive prosperity will remain a pipe dream.”
