In a bid to ameliorate the impact of the lockdown occasioned by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic in most states of the Federation, the Zinox Group has committed to feeding over 7,000 Nigerian families for two weeks through its staff spread across the various states in Nigeria.

The ingenious initiative is also targeted at supporting the efforts of the Federal and State Governments in reaching needy Nigerians across the country.

To this end, the management of the Zinox Group which includes concerns such as Zinox Technologies Ltd., TD Africa, Task Systems Ltd., TD Plus, TDiLife, among others, as well as the Konga Group – with its growing subsidiaries such as Konga Travel, KongaPay and Kxpress, among others – has decided to use its staff across all its network of branches dispersed across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria to reach the under-reached and under-served populations.

The initiative, a brain-child of the Group Chairman, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, was borne out of the hardship and suffering he witnessed during his personal visitations to various rural locations and suburbs around town after donations to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), some churches and states.

Consequently, the Zinox Group has set up a special palliative fund running into millions of Naira from which all employees across the Group will have their accounts credited. Every full time staff in each of the respective companies in the Zinox Group and Konga – starting from the security man at the gate up to members of Executive Management – is expected to use the funds received to adopt a minimum of three families which it will support with essential food items to last them through the next two weeks.

While junior staff in all the companies across Nigeria are expected to nominate and donate the Zinox Group’s special palliatives to at least three needy families around their vicinity, mid-level executives are expected to reach at least five families each while members of Executive Management will be expected to donate to at least seven families.

For this exercise, families and relatives of all staff and employees of the Zinox Group and Konga are not expected to benefit.

The foregoing was confirmed by Group Head, Corporate Communications, Gideon Ayogu.

‘‘All staff and employees will receive dedicated sums from this special palliative fund set up by the Group Chairman, according to their cadre. They are then expected to identify the most needy and poor families within a two-kilometre radius from where they live and supply them with essential food items such as medium bags of rice, tomato paste and gallons of cooking oil to last them for the next two weeks.

‘‘To ensure accountability and to make sure that the intervention reaches the right people, we have also set up an audit team. Each staff is expected to provide pictorial evidence and at least two phone numbers from each of the families donated to. These will be verified digitally by the audit team. The Chairman is a data-driven person and has highlighted the need to verify the beneficiaries else it becomes a waste of hard-earned resources. It is important to reiterate here that members of staff, their families and relatives are exempted from benefitting from this special intervention,’’ Ayogu disclosed.

‘‘Having personally visited a number of locations and seen first-hand the hardship being borne by Nigerians this period, Mr. Ekeh has decided that this is a more impactful way to reach the needy and support the efforts of governments in bringing succour to them. This special intervention is in addition to other undisclosed and unreported outreaches and donations to a number of charitable and religious organizations and a few state governments by the Leo Stan Ekeh Foundation to support their efforts in reaching the masses during these challenging times,’’ he concluded.