… as Sanwo-Olu unveils 80-bed isolation and treatment centre in Eti Osa
The COVID-19 pandemic, a global health emergency, has provided opportunity for individuals and corporate organizations to serve communities and support government, Paul Onwuanibe, CEO, Landmark Africa, developers of the expansive Landmark Village in Lagos, has said.
It is for that reason that three weeks after the announcement of ongoing discussions to use a part of the Landmark Village as an Isolation and Treatment Centre in Eti -Osa Local Government, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, last week, unveiled an 80-bed centre completed recently at the site.
The facility, a standard centre constructed and fitted to specification, was delivered through a tripartite public private partnership (PPP), consisting of Landmark Africa, the Lagos State Government and the Young Presidents’ Association (YPO) representing various private individuals as well as corporate donors.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, at the unveiling event, commended the parties for the level of preparedness, saying, “we have taken over this facility but it will be operated in collaboration with the private sector. I am happy with the level of preparedness I have seen.”
Onwuanibe explained that Landmark’s decision to partner with the YPO and the Lagos State Government, was because “we see this as an opportunity to serve the Eti Osa community and Lagos state residents at large, given the support and patronage we have enjoyed from them over the years.”
He noted that the world was pulling together private and public resources to fight the coronavirus pandemic and, as a responsible corporate citizen, “it is important for us to contribute our quota to ensure prompt treatment and help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Eti Osa LGA.”
In an extensive chat with journalists about safety measures that have been implemented, the Head of Projects at Landmark Africa, Enyinna Okorafor, assured that the centre was physically isolated from other facilities and operations within the Landmark Village.
“We must make it clear that the Isolation and Treatment Centre is a physically independent and completely isolated operation within Landmark. Regular visitors to Landmark will have absolutely no interaction with the Centre or its activities.
“Our partners, tenants, visitors, neighbours and the larger community are able to carry out their normal activities, both inside and outside our premises, with ease once the lockdown directive has been reversed. Together with the YPO, NCDC and the Lagos State government, there are also stringent and WHO-approved decontamination measures in place both now and once the Centre is de-commissioned,” said Okorafor.
He described the swift construction process that led to the prompt delivery of the Centre, stressing that “we are immensely proud to have delivered the facility within three weeks of commencement. With over two decades’ experience as a property services company, our detailed construction processes helped us deliver the project seamlessly and to ensure that it was ready for use within the stipulated time.”
Landmark Africa has now joined the league of events and exhibition centres across the world that has made their facilities available to support their governments in the fight against COVID-19. The New York state-owned Javits Centre was converted to a 4,000-bed field hospital, pulling together expertise from more than 15 city, state and federal agencies in the United States.
In London, the ExCel Centre is now the site of the first NHS Nightingale hospital – the first of such as part of Britain’s nationwide effort to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, a 1,000 bed hospital is being built at the Lenexpo Exhibition Centre while the Crocus Exhibition Centre will now be converted into a 1,500 -bed hospital in Russia.
In the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre has been transformed into a field hospital, providing a 1,000-bed capacity treatment centre. “As a leading real estate and property services company in Nigeria, providing spaces for business, lifestyle and leisure, people are at the heart of the solutions we provide.
“So, at this time when there is a call to come together to save Lagosians from, perhaps, the greatest health catastrophe in over a century, it is very important to us that we step forward boldly and confront this challenge head-on,” Okoroafor said.
Landmark Africa is immensely honoured to play its part now and looks forward to a time in the nearest future when we all would have won this war so that we can provide even better and bigger business, leisure and lifestyle services,” said Funlola Enelemah, Chief Administrative Officer of Landmark.
Source: Businessdayng
