Lagos trains residents on production of cheap sanitisers

Worried by the scarcity and rising cost of sanitisers in the effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease, the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority (LSADA) has trained residents, including select pupils of public secondary schools, teachers and farmers’ groups, on the production of cheap hand sanitisers.

The pupils were drawn from Vetland Senior Secondary School and Vetland Junior Secondary School, both in Agege; Estate Junior High School, Ifako and Satdium Junior Grammar School, Ifako-Ijaiye.

Speaking during the training held on Friday at the agricultural agency’s office in Oko Oba, Agege, its Programme Manager, Dr. Olalekan Perreira-Sheteolu, said the need to make cheaper and affordable sanitisers available to residents informed the decision to organise the training.

Perreira-Sheteolu said: “The reason why we are here today is because hand sanitizers are going beyond the reach of ordinary people.

“Sanitisers are now being sold at exorbitant prices; as high as N1,500, hence we have to intervene since we have the facility to produce them at cheaper cost.

”And every participant today will go home with a hand sanitiser. We did exactly the same thing about five years ago during the outbreak of Ebola virus disease and we are repeating it today.

“This is the reason why we are here to purposely teach people how to produce cheaper hand sanitiser with barely N200 to curb coronavirus disease in the country.”

One of the participants, Adetola Modupe, said the training would go a long way in curbing the spread of the viral disease in the rural communities.

”We will ensure that we replicate the training in our group called Ogbonge Fish Farmers, so we can produce and use cheaper sanitisers before and after we handle fishes as well as in our homes,” she said.

An agricultural science teacher at Vetland Junior Secondary School, Agege, Mrs Funmilola Ajayi, who lauded the training programme, said she ”would produce cheaper hand sanitisers for the pupils to safeguard them from being infected with the killer virus.”