Nigeria Businessman, Aliko Dangote donates N150M to help Nigeria Government fight Ebola.

A company owned by Africa’s richest man has donated N150 million  to halt the spread of Ebola in Nigeria, the government has said.

The Dangote Group, owned by 57-year-old Aliko Dangote, gave out the money as the West African nation confirmed 11 cases of the lethal haemorrhagic fever Thursday. Three people have died of the disease in Nigeria, which has killed 1,066 people in neighbouring countries.

Some 169 people are under surveillance, many of them infected after coming into contact with a Liberian man who took the disease to Lagos or with medical staff who attended to him.
The World Health Organization has called this Ebola outbreak, whose worst affected countries include Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, an international emergency. It has killed around 55 to 60 per cent of those have contracted the disease.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Foundation, Mrs Adhiambo Odaga announced this at a media briefing at the Ministry of Health, Abuja on Monday. She said the money will be available for the establishment of an Ebola emergency operation centre in Lagos.
“After bilateral discussion with the honourable minister and his team, Dangote foundation has funded the establishment of the Ebola emergency operation in Lagos, that is being done through grant from the foundation of just a little over N150 million,” she said.
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"The strategy that our chairman is deploying is the strategy to respond and to commend government for the effort, and to show that all Nigerians are concerned. We will continue to discuss with the ministry about what additional support can be offered.
“And we also have been approached by several parties who are interested in partnering with the government, and we would continue that discussion.”
Odaga relayed Dangote’s call to all Nigerians to join the federal government in the fight against Ebola, expressing optimism that the disease would be contained.
“The choice of the emergency operation centre as an investment for Dangote Foundation is based on the fact that is the critical platform through which the government is coordinating all that is happening to ensure that the crisis is contained,” says Mrs Adhiambo Odaga.