BY Victoria Ojeme

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adebayo Adeniyi said the ministry has established an emergency operation centre to monitor the supply of essential commodities at this critical time of the spread of coronavirus.

Adebayo stated this at the briefing on the Covid-19 pandemic to curtail its negative impact on the manufacturing, trade and related sectors of the economy.

He said after the national broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment established establish an Emergency Operation Center to monitor the supply of essential commodities.

This centre, which is housed in the ministry, would help to monitor the real-time status of transportation and delivery of essential goods to cut down on the difficulties being faced by manufacturers, transporters and distributors of essential commodities across the country.

He said since cases of COVID-19 started spreading across the country, state government’s have announced actions ranging from partial lockdowns, to outright bans on movement, to ensuring that the spread of the Coronavirus is controlled, limited or declared non-existent in their respective states.

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“As we work to deliver on these key objectives, there has been a dedicated secretariat in place – of men and women from the public and private sectors – who have been working round the clock to ensure that truckloads of food, drugs and other essential items get to their points of destination across the nation.

“After subsequent engagements with the leadership of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), one critical constraint that was identified was that while working to comply with the directive of Mr. President, distributors and manufacturers still had restricted movement due to the enforcement of the lockdown by the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies,’’he added.

Vanguard