In other to effectively halt the spread of the pandemic outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID- 19) and ensure people stay at home, social media giant Facebook has issued a statement saying that it has approved $100 million to assist small, medium enterprise (SMEs) in Nigeria and 29 other countries where its employees live and work.
According to the issued statement, Facebook is taking this step to curtail the spread of the covid-19 virus and help global health experts broadcast the right information as one of the surest ways of halting the spread of the virus is for to people stay home.
Captured below is the statement released by Facebook
“Our thoughts, like everyone’s, are with our loved ones and our communities and all of those impacted around the world.
“We’ve listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them. We’ve heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can’t come to work.
That’s why today I’m announcing that Facebook is investing $100 million to help 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.
“That’s just the start. We also want to make it easier for businesses everywhere to find help and receive training and support from our teams.
“We’ve made our Business Hub a resource for Facebook employees and health experts readily available for all. We are also creating new virtual training to support businesses operating in this new and unsettling environment.”
“We want to do more and teams across our company are working every day to help businesses. We are also looking at additional ways to host virtual training (more updates on this will be shared in the coming weeks).”
“We’re finding more ways to help people connect and learn to use technology through Blueprint, our free e-learning training programme.”
“Whatever happens next, we will be working to help businesses weather this storm. Please keep safe and look out for those around you.
“For some weeks now, we have seen inspiring examples of individuals and groups helping each other.
People across the globe are stepping up, rising to the enormous challenge in front of us. We want to do our part too.”
“Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities, and many of the people who run these businesses are heavily affected by the crisis especially as more and more people sensibly stay home.”
“The longer the crisis goes on, the greater the risk to small businesses and to the livelihoods of their owners and employees,” the statement read.
Featured Image: vox
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