By this, shoppers who go to any of the Melcom shops nationwide are now required to wear nose or face masks or be denied entry.

The Joint Group Managing Director of Melcom Group, Mr Mahesh Melwani has revealed that Melcom is enforcing this protocol to help stop the spread of COVID-19 among its customers and staff.

He said “We have given instructions to, and we keep reminding all our shop managers to strictly enforce these containment measures and those who do not wear facemasks will be refused entry.”

He revealed that apart from the compulsorily wearing of masks, customers are also ensured to strictly observe physical distancing, washing of hands with soap under running water, rubbing their hands with sanitizers and have their temperature taken before they can get access into the shops.

Mr Melwani averred that Melcom Group which has 45 outlets and supermarkets across the country, will continue to enforce these strict measures, although very uncomfortable to shoppers, just to save lives.

He said: “We now appreciate that since we started enforcing the wearing of facemask from the beginning of the outbreak in Ghana, 99 per cent of customers come having one. People now understand that wearing mask is not only for their safety but the safety of all of us.”

Mr Melwani said Melcom was the first to introduce hand-washing to curb the spread of COVID-19 among its customers and employees, as they do well to encourage customers, in the early stages of the pandemic to wear masks.

He also said Melcom had procured several protective equipment including about 8,000 N95 facemasks and pocket hand-sanitizers for its staff nationwide.

“We also have instructed our staff to constantly clean and disinfect the lifts, trolleys, railings on stair cases and ramps. We are doing our level best in hammering this into all our staff that this must be done all the time.

We also implemented measures such as having queue markers and regulating entry to ensure that the number of customers inside remains manageable,” he said. This was acknowledged by His Excellency the President of Ghana in his Address to the Nation on Sunday 26th April, 2020 wherein he tasked all other business to emulate Melcom.

On their Social responsibility, Melwani said, Melcom had undertaken many corporate social responsibility activities to improve the lots of Ghanaians including the donation of 1,343 units of blood to the various blood banks earlier this year involving staff and members of the public in 22 outlets of Melcom nationwide.

A donation of veronica buckets, liquid soaps, sanitizers, hand and face towels we were made to Korle bu and 37 Military hospitals. They have also imported and donated portable toilets and accessories to be installed for selected schools valued at over GHC150,000 a donation of GH100,001.00 was given to the COVID-19 National Trust Fund.

With all this Melcom has also kept up and is current with it’s tax obligations with GRA.

The company also donated numerous pocket hand-sanitizers to a number of public institutions including the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Ghana Immigration Service, Office of the President< Ghana Police service, Fire Services, SNNIT, ICU, various hospitals including Korle Bu, Ridge, 37 Military, Holy Trinity Hospitals ,Chief Immam and several of their banking partners.