Sterling Bank has pledged to become more engaged in its interventions in the health sector in Nigeria.
The managing director (CEO) of the bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, made the promise in a brief remark during a Friday night dinner in Lagos.
The dinner aimed to appreciate the advice and partners of Sterling One Foundation healthcare workers, who have raised funds to help healthcare workers at the start of the COVID -19 pandemic.
The Nigerian News Agency (NAN) reports that the foundation, through its crowdfunding platform, give.ng, raised around 55 million naira to pay risk compensation for around 154 health workers who were workers. frontline across the country.
Thanks to the fund, the foundation was able to increase the workers’ risk allowance from a paltry N5,000 per month to N100,000 for three months.
Suleiman noted that health facilities in Nigeria were nowhere near what they should be.
He said the plight of the workers, especially during the pandemic, had prompted the bank, in partnership with the Sterling One Foundation, to bring in partners to address their plight.
“We are here to appreciate the people who have said yes to service without compensation.
“These are the people who trusted the fund. The team that performed this intervention must be a team.
“I want to ask the people who made this possible to remain our partners because we would like to engage more in the health sector,” said Suleiman.
Sterling One Foundation CEO Ms Olapeju Ibekwe said the event was held to celebrate and appreciate the board of directors and health worker fund partners.
She said they stood up at the start of the pandemic to support health workers at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We realized that great attention was paid to infrastructure, buildings and PPE. All of this is useless if there are no humans to occupy them.
“At the time, workers received a risk allowance of 5,000 N and we realize that the government cannot do it all on its own.
“We have taken it upon ourselves that human beings are critical, which is why we have chosen to support them, because we know that life is not replaceable,” Ibekwe said.
She said the sterling bank seeded the fund with N25 million.
The CEO expressed his gratitude to all Nigerians who contributed to the fund and to the health workers who dared the pandemic to save the lives of many people.
In addition, Mr. Obinna Ukachukwu, Division Manager, Health and Education, Sterling Bank, explained why the bank took the initiative.
He said it was because the government had previously focused on covering the costs of treating patients without focusing too much on health workers.
Ukachukwu said the bank was happy with the interventions in the health sector but more could be done.
He said it was because the pandemic had opened the country’s eyes to a health emergency in the area.
The Chairman of the Board, Dr Olalokun Soyinka, expressed his gratitude to the foundation for giving him and his team the opportunity to serve.
Soyinka said the heart of any health system are its health workers.
“I believe the most important thing in any health facility is the health workers.
“When the pandemic hit us, it was clear that the people who were going to save us were the workers, not the masks,” he said.
Soyinka called for more training for healthcare workers, especially in the area of telemedicine.
NAN reports that the board members include people from all regions.
Some of the project partners include Pulse.ng, Ventures Africa, Today’s Woman, Proshare, Trace TV, and Netcore Solutions Hygeia HMO, among others.
Highlights of the event were the presentation of gifts to members of the board of health and partners by Sterling Bank. (NAN)
