As news broke of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, we knew that we were facing a challenge like no other and that the effects of the virus could spell devastation across our African continent. There is no single roadmap for crisis and what works in one country may prove futile in another – but there is one guiding principle for meeting uncertainty: we are stronger when we work together.
For the past 25 years, Sahara Group has led by example across the African continent and through our global operations. In everything we do we have endeavoured not only to meet the existing standard but exceed it, and demonstrate that an ethos of commitment, resourcefulness and disruptive creativity offers a new way of working. At the heart of that approach has been our commitment to collaboration, to learning from our shared experiences and never resting if there are improvements that can still be made.
In our response to COVID-19, the approach has been no different. The severity of the crisis meant that no single mind or pair of hands would be sufficient to meet the challenge. Instead our only hope lay in working together, shifting our group focus to the task of saving a million lives and empowering millions more. We wasted no time in laying the foundations of our approach and in just a few days we had the workings of a plan that would help support and strengthen medical resources across Africa in pursuit of a new mission that would be #SavingAMillionLives.
In this collection we have brought together some of the stories of collaboration, solidarity and courage that have defined our response to the crisis, and which celebrate the extraordinary role played by our ‘heroes without capes’: responders and rest line medical personnel. We are so grateful to the patience, commitment and diligence of the Sahara Group family, many of whom have been personally involved in our crisis response, readily volunteering to assist in various capacities through our work in Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire Nigeria and across the African continent. Each has contributed immeasurably and deserves every credit for delivering our shared effort to save a million lives.
Our COVID-19 response work has included the launch of Abuja’s only isolation, recovery and treatment centre with 300 beds for patients; providing and sustaining oxygen supplies for hospitals in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, providing dry and cooked food to over one million beneficiaries, face masks, hand sanitizers and relief materials to communities where our power affiliates (Ikeja Electric, Egbin Power and First Independent Power Limited), upstream and other Sahara affiliates operate across Africa.
In Zambia, Asharami Energy Limited Company donated tens of thousands of hand-made fabric/Chitenge masks to shore up access to PPE and slow the spread of the virus. The company also publishes materials in English, Bemba, and Nyanja to facilitate the dissemination of information about the pandemic. In Kenya, Asharami Synergy Limited donated thousands of 5 litre jerrycans of hand sanitizers, whilst oxygen has been donated to hospitals in Ghana as well as Cote d’Ivoire to boost life support operations. Sahara’s Downstream entity, Asharami Synergy working in collaboration with other members of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) is providing support towards the completion and equipping of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Hospital in Abuja.
We will not be defeated by this crisis, but will be empowered by the inspiring stories, actions and sacrifices to which it has given rise. Our mission to #SavingAMillionLives goes far beyond the crisis response because it has revealed the power that can be realised when we work together towards a common goal. Sahara Group is passionate about energising aspirations and enabling the communities, individuals, businesses and Nations we encounter during our operations.
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