School feeding programme continues, repayment of Tradermoni suspended, and five other things you may have missed from Buhari’s address

President Muhammadu Buhari in his statewide broadcast, on Sunday, reeled out some of the new measures the government would be implementing in its fight against the deadly coronavirus in Nigeria.

As at Monday morning, Nigeria’s confirmed cases stood at 111 with one death toll, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

Aside banning movements in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun, Buhari also declared that while schools across the country are shut, the federal government’s Homegrown School Feeding Programme will continue. The programme provides free meal to pupils in classes one to three in public primary schools so as to boost enrolment and battle malnutrition.

He also suspended the repayment of all TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni loans as well as FG-funded loans issued by the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and the Nigeria Export Import Bank for the next three months.

Here are other directives from the President’s address:

1. Governors are to nominate doctors and nurses from their states who will be trained by the NCDC and Lagos State Government on tactical and operational response to the virus in case it spreads to other states.

2. Government shall deploy relief materials to ease their pains of residents of satellite and commuter towns and communities around Lagos and Abuja whose livelihoods will be affected by the ban on movements.

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3. Conditional cash transfers for the next two months will be paid immediately to the most vulnerable in the society, while internally displaced persons will also receive two months of food rations in the coming weeks.

4. All contributions and donations made by individuals and corporate organisations will be coordinated and centralized by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to ensure efficient and impactful spending.

5. All seaports in Lagos shall remain operational but vehicles and drivers conveying essential cargoes from the Ports to other parts of the country will be screened thoroughly before leaving the Ports. All vehicles conveying food and other essential humanitarian items into FCT, Lagos, Ogun from other parts of the country will also be screened thoroughly before they are allowed to enter.