
Issued on: 27 MARCH 2020
Nwamaka Okoye
Nwamaka Okoye is the co-founder and managing director of Housessories, a Nigerian furniture manufacturing and interior design company.
“For over a week, watching what’s going on the news, I have grappled with the apparent conflict of making profit against the welfare of my people. The welfare of my people has won hands down. We are winding down operations today. This is because our factory staff have to ride the bus to work every day and exposing them to the dangers of the virus does not make any moral sense.
“Because I believe there will be severely restricted movement for between two weeks to a month, we have made arrangements to provide them with 25kg of rice each (as a palliative measure) and a salary advance so they can purchase necessary supplies for the inevitable lockdown.”