NCAC to rollout home made face masks, sanitizers

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The Nigerian premier cultural agency, the National Council  for Arts and Culture ( NCAC) has said it would introduce both medical and conventional facemasks made from local adire and Ankara fabrics embossed with NCAC logo to showcase home grown solutions.

This it said  is to strike a balance going by the government’s growing concerns about certain breaches of COVID-19 protocols, particularly on the dedicated use of facemasks and sanitizers to Clean the hands, it would through this means, check imitation.

The Director-General, NCAC, Otunba Segun Runsewe stated that, the measures are part of well thought out interventions that will help strike a balance in demands and needs to ensure no one finds excuse to breach the COVID 19 protocols.

A situation  he said has prompted the  intervention of the agency for the production of the kits.

Made in Nigeria face mask

“We shall be targeting the culture tourism community, the media, the security agencies at the frontline of the battle to the successful and full compliance of the lockdown and also the medical professionals.” the DG stated.

Runsewe emphasised that COVID-19 pandemic has provided Nigeria a great opportunity to reflect on the need to produce on it’s own, the relevant kits and accessories which will no doubt meet with export standard and health protocols, as well as to exploit the huge cultural resources in Nigeria,

” We cannot just sit down and expect help from outside the country all the time. We should respond to this challenge by looking inwards and creatively discover certain benefits in our cultural endowment, support the process of indigenous response to all health challenges not just COVID -19 pandemic, Runsewe further clarified, adding that necessity is the mother of all inventions around the world.

Nigerian fabrics on display

” Ours is not only to support government directives that Nigerians should wear face masks in public places, but to develop a determined basic cultural socio-economic  baseline to the effective use and engagement of local fabrics and natural resources to which Nigeria is well blessed, Otunba Runsewe stated further.

Under Runsewe, NCAC has indeed promoted a proudly and exclusively Nigerian cultural products such as local fabrics, arts and crafts which started since the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.