Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and head of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, has said that he never knew Nigeria’s healthcare system was in a bad state until the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking on Thursday when the task force met with the leadership of the National Assembly in Abuja, Mustapha said he only got to know about the country’s health infrastructure when he was given the role as head of the task force.
“I can tell you for sure, I never knew that our entire healthcare infrastructure was in the state in which it is until I was appointed to do this work,” he said.
Mustapha added that Nigeria needs to improve its healthcare system as developed countries were struggling to contain the pandemic.
“My prayer is that Nigeria’s situation does not escalate to that extent because the country lacked what is required to handle the situation,” he said.
The SGF also said the task force would not be directly involved in the disbursement of cash donations meant to lessen the effect of COVID-19 on the public.
“The accountant-general of the federation has already published the account details for collection through some commercial banks and also provided the modalities for its utilisation,” he said.
“All the main COVID-19 accounts shall be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, all non-cash donations shall be duly received by the PTF, acknowledged, documented and appropriately deployed.”
