CoronaVirus Updates
CBN, NNPC agree to pay N1 billion cost of quarantine for returnees
BY KAZIE UKO
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have agreed to pick up the bill for the quarantine of Nigerians evacuated from abroad as the nation battles the coronavirus disease.
The total cost of accommodation and feeding of evacuees during their 14-day compulsory quarantine is estimated at N1 billion.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, revealed this on Monday during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in Abuja.
Onyeama said the intervention was made possible by the co-operation of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari.
The Foreign Affairs ministry had instructed Nigerian embassies abroad to inform intending evacuees that they would be responsible for the cost of accommodation and feeding as they quarantine in Nigeria on arrival.
Each returnee, according to a letter issued by the Nigerian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, is expected to pay N297,600 as cost for accommodation and feeding for 16 days.
The minister explained that the MFA had imposed advance payment of feeding and hotel bills on evacuees because the FG had no source of funding.
READ: Returning Nigerians to pay for 2 weeks quarantine
He said, “After getting all the barrage from all around the world, including that we were somehow conspiring with hotels to fleece Nigerians and make money for ourselves and other kinds of accusations, we continued to find the way through.
“They say that two heads are better than one. The Honourable Minister of Environment, Dr Mahmoud Abubakar, called me on Friday and suggested that why not try NNPC and CBN. They have corporate social responsibility funding and I told him I will do that immediately.
“I got in touch with the governor of the CBN and he generously agreed. He said the amount I was talking about is over a billion naira because we have over 4,000 Nigerians out there and if over 3,000 of them come back, the cost of feeding and accommodation is over a billion naira, that we don’t have. He said he was ready to share the cost with the NNPC.
“I spoke with the GMD of NNPC and he said he was going to consult and thanks be to God, today (Monday), he got back to me and he said he was going to meet with the governor of CBN and together, they will fund this portion, a very important one, the feeding and accommodation of the evacuees.”