NIGERIA – Eat’N’Go, Nigeria’s franchise holder for the Domino’s Pizza, Cold Stone Creamery and Pinkberry Gourmet Frozen Yogurt brands, has donated 15,000 pizzas worth N35 million (US$90,00) to frontline workers, joining in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

According to reports by Business Day, the company chose to make the donations to the frontline workers i.e. the emergency workers in the hospitals, the policemen/women, the firefighters and other security agencies, as they at times get so busy, not having lunch.

“We found out that their day gets so busy that they sometimes do not have lunch and so we have given out N35 million (US$90,000) worth of products translating to about 15,000 pizzas,” said the Chief Executive Officer of the restaurant group, Patrick Mc Michael.

Despite being hit by the coronavirus pandemic as it reported a 60 percent revenue decline during the five-week lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and FCT, Eat’N’Go revealed that it is still continuing with its other Corporate social responsibility (CSR) like the slum2school programme.

“There is no doubt we have suffered along with many other businesses in Nigeria during the period and we are still suffering as we are trading below what we should be trading at this time and I expect that to continue a bit longer but we are getting better every week as customers are feeling more comfortable,” said the CEO.

He added that the company has chosen to embark on salary reduction for its employees instead of laying off any staff to ensure continuity of their job security and operations of the business.

“The pandemic forced us to think about how we do our business as we have gone from 80 percent of our business coming from dinning to zero and that has pushed our delivering up to almost 100 percent and have changed our revenue stream,” Michael said adding that the company has since then hired more riders to enable easy delivery to its customers.

With the outbreak of the Corona-Virus, most food businesses, restaurants and eateries have adopted the use of home deliveries, upholding the physical distancing protocol to curb the spread of the virus.

Jumia’s on-demand food delivery business in Nigeria has recorded notable growth in order volume at over 30% MoM (month-on-month) since March. This was revealed by the e-commerce giant during a virtual press conference celebrating the company’s 8th anniversary.

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