Nigeria Receives Free Medical Supplies for COVID-19 from the Jack Ma Foundation

At exactly 3:20pm today, an Ethiopian Airline Freighter landed at the Lagos International Airport, Ikeja, to deliver Medical Supplies from the Jack Ma Foundation.

According to reports by BusinessDay, on the 22nd of March, an Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight loaded with a large batch of medical supplies donated to Africa from the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation departed from Guangzhou, China and landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The flight carried 5.4 million face masks, kits for 1.08 million detection tests, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 sets of protective face shields.

These materials are meant for onward transportation to the rest of the continent, and the Ethiopian government seems to be in charge of carrying out this task of distribution. Ethiopian Airlines is the national carrier of the Ethiopian government.

The remaining shipments of medical supplies are expected to reach Addis Ababa and be distributed to more African nations over the next few weeks.

Mr. Jack Ma

“We appreciate the donation of the Jack Ma Foundation and the generosity of Jack Ma. We admire Abiy Ahmed, our Prime Minister, for his initiative and organization of the entire coordination of the process,” said a statement by the airline's General manager in Nigeria, Firihiewot Mekonnen.

Speaking further, he said, "Today, we are very happy to deliver these medical supplies to the Government and people of Nigeria. Ethiopian Airlines has always stood by Nigeria in times of good and bad. Since we started flying to Lagos we have not stopped our flights even when Abuja airport was closed we were the only international airline that flew to Kaduna.”