MANAGEMENT of the United Bank of Africa (UBA) group has announced on its official Twitter handle that the bank will provide five billion Naira to COVID-19 relief support across Africa.
According to the Bank, the fund is to catalyse a comprehensive pan-African response to the fight against Coronavirus pandemic.
The bank explained that the donation will provide significant and much needed support to Nigeria and 19 other African countries.
The funds would be used to supply relief materials, critical care facilities and financial support to governments across Africa.
According to the post on Twitter by the bank, support program would be allocated as follows; one billion Naira to Lagos, 500 million Naira to Abuja, one billion Naira to the remaining 35 states in Nigeria.
In addition, 1.5 billion Naira will be given to other countries in Africa where UBA has presence and one billion Naira for medical centres with equipments and supplies.
UBA group also said the they would be supplying free telemedicine call center facility.
The bank also said in the post that, it would fund a medical center immediately in Lagos with beds for isolation and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities managed and operated in partnership with Heirs Holdings Limited and its subsidiary, Avon Medical Hospital.
UBA group would be providing a free telemedicine platform that will provide citizens direct access to medical advice in compliance with social distancing requirements.
According to the Chairman of the bank, Tony Elumelu, ”This is a time where we must all play our part”.
”The global pandemic must bring citizens, government and business leaders together and quickly, as we see rapid increasing number of cases of the coronavirus in Nigeria and Africa, the private sector hs to work hand in hand with various governments in stemming the spread,” he added.
”We commend the effort of governments and we are keen to partner and contribute our resources to the collective effort, that would ensure the response to the pandemic is swift and effective,” Elumelu said