Understanding The Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Dear Colleagues,

Like many of you, we have spent the last few days and weeks understanding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and how it is impacting the nonprofit sector. For the Nigeria Network of NGOs, that means learning how it affects employees, beneficiaries and communities we serve, including what the necessary adjustments to our work and operations would look like.

As the outbreak escalates, our focus has been on keeping people safe and informed especially nonprofit employees. This going forward will be at the centre of our conversations for days and months to come. We have made several moves in our operations that I would like to share with you.

I have listened to my colleagues individually to understand how the outbreak will affect their productivity and have used this information to decide what measures we need to put in place to support each staff. One of such is the voluntary work from home policy, where I am allowing staff members, especially those with long commute, to work from home should they decide to.

We have ramped up our personal hygiene with hand sanitizers distributed to all staff and hand washing encouraged. We are practicing social distancing while at work and contributing positively to public discourse on the outbreak while serving as a source of calm and sound advice internally and externally.

To do what we can to help stop the spread of the virus, our Lagos and Ibadan offices are closed to visitors from Monday 23, 2020, a strict travel ban for employees is in place and we have cancelled workshops and events with large gatherings in line with government directives. We are closely following the Nigeria Center for Disease Control’s (NCDC) guideline and recommendations on the steps we can take to prevent the spread of the virus.

We also want to help our members everywhere to find help and receive training and support from our team. We are expanding our premium membership benefits to all members and opening up all our electronic channels—email: nnngo@nnngo.org , seyi@nnngo.org , timothy@nnngo.org , adeola.odunsi@nnngo.org , chidinma.okpara@nnngo.org , aramide.oyindamola@nnngo.org ; phone: 0906 946 0107, 0906 948 6207, 0906 946 9197 to pick up your request for support. We are here to help.

We understand the outbreak will have implications for contractual engagement with donors. Please let them know immediately how this is affecting your work as you may have to renegotiate restrictions and timing on grant reporting and explicitly plan for the unexpected.

Whatever happens in the next coming days, weeks and months we will be here to help nonprofits address their challenges. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and do all we can to provide support and guidance to weather the storm.

Thank you.

Oyebisi, B. Oluseyi,
Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs.