REPORTER: EMEFIENA OKONKWO
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has formally handed over a medical warehouse facility which was donated to them by the Enugu State Government fifteen years ago.
Speaking at the formal handover to the state government at the facility located at Emeka Ebila Avenue, Enugu, the UNICEF Nigeria Deputy Representative(Operations), Dr. Charles Lolika, expressed joy that the state government was magnanimous enough to have given them the warehouse free of charge all those while.
“On behalf of UNICEF, I am honoured to formally hand back this warehouse facility to the government of Enugu State, closing a productive chapter in our partnership.
“Since 2011, when the state generously provided this facility under a Memorandum of Understanding, it has served as a vital logistics hub supporting programme delivery across states under our Field Office.
“Today’s handover reflects more than the return of a building. It symbolises trust, shared responsibility and our joint commitment to advancing the wellbeing of children and communities in Enugu State,” he said.
Dr Lolika noted that the warehouse served “from health and nutrition supplies to education materials, WASH commodities and emergency response items, this warehouse strengthened supply chains, improved last mile delivery and enabled rapid response during public health and humanitarian crises.”
The UNICEF representative while also expressing their heartfelt gratitude for the free of charge facility noted that they will still work with the state government.
“They really did a great job to facilitate this rent-free facility which really saved the operational cost for UNICEF and other UN agencies. We are not only handing this warehouse as infrastructure, but we continue also to build the capacity of the state government in warehouse management, including digitalization.
“Wherever there are few supplies we get, we will still hand them over to the government, and they will be managing on our behalf. So, that is the status where we are. We are really very grateful to the government of the state,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Enugu State Government and the Ministry of Health, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. George Ugwu also expressed joy that UNICEF was handing back a renovated facility.
“We are here to receive back the warehouse that the government of Enugu State handed over to UNICEF many years ago to help in keeping the items of work.
They have finished using it and considered it necessary to renovate the warehouse and hand it over back to us, the state government.
“We are grateful that UNICEF has renovated it a bit, bringing it to a standard where we can just continue to use it. The warehouse, in serving our state, allows us to receive and keep many commodities and items, including health items, nutrition commodities, WASH items, and all sorts of items that we eventually distribute, sometimes, to our healthcare facilities across the state,” Prof. Ugwu said.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Executive Secretary, Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency, , Dr. Ifenyinwa Ani-Osheku, thanked UNICEF for returning a renovated facility and promised that it would be put to better use to serve the state better.
“Today is actually a day where we get to witness another episode of what partnership can truly do. At the time that UNICEF had the need to store essential commodities,
as well as important vaccines for the entire South East, they approached the Enugu State government some 15 years ago.
“The Enugu State government, in its magnanimity, gave this warehouse to UNICEF completely rent-free for the last 15 years. At the expiration of the memorandum of understanding, UNICEF, in a show of good faith, is also returning this facility back to the Enugu State government. However, it’s not just returning the same facility; UNICEF upgraded it, and they are returning it in an absolutely stunning way.
The warehouse has been completely painted, and everything that needed to be fixed has been fixed, making it almost ready to use.
“Now that the state has received it through the State Ministry of Health, it’s up to us to decide how we will put this warehouse to good use,” Dr Ani-Osheku said.
