Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed said that the Federal Government is yet to receive the ventilators promised by U.S. President Donald Trump to cope with hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
Mohammed said stated this at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, that Trump made the offer to his Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on 28 April, saying that the US was committed to helping the Nigerian people.
“Nigeria just called. We’re giving them 250 ventilators,” Trump said on 12 May.
That number is different from Trump’s comments during his tour of the Ford Motor Plant in Michigan on 21 May, where he said that the US was giving Nigeria 1,000 ventilators.
Trump has earmarked 8,000 of the medical devices, essential in fighting Covid-19 in the most severe hospitalized cases, to be shipped around the world by the end of July.
Back at the daily Covid-19 press conference, Information Minister Mohammed said “On when the ventilators promised by President Trump will arrive, to the best of my knowledge, they have not arrived. When they do arrive it will be made known to the public. “
Chinese Ali Baba Entrepreneur, Jack Ma has already donated 300 ventilators sent to Nigeria, including testing kits and ventilators to each African country in three separate shipments.
