THE Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has dispelled reports that the commission has spent N1 billion on sending text messages to Nigerians as part of measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The NCDC via a tweet on its official Twitter handle, posted Thursday morning maintained that such reports were not true.
The Centre, while quoting an headline that said it has spent N1 billion to educate Nigerians on Covid-19, refuted the claim as fake news.
It said while the text messages were a key component in educating citizens of the country about the pandemic, it has not spent such amount.
The NCDC further explained that the text messages have been ‘largely provided as ‘in-kind support’ by some telecommunications companies in the country.
Listing the telecommunications companies, NCDC mentioned Airtel Nigeria, MTN, Nigeria and Global Communications (GLO) as companies supporting the agency with the text messages.
The headline claiming that NCDC has spent N1 billion on SMS to Nigerians is FALSE
While communication through SMS is a key part of our #COVID19 response strategy, this has been largely provided as in-kind support by @AirtelNigeria @MTNNG @GloWorld
#TakeResponsibility pic.twitter.com/CCr2B943FJ
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 9, 2020
For the past weeks, some Nigerians have received messages by the NCDC orientating them on what to do, who to call and restriction orders in some Nigerian states.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94