Dan Sackey, MD, Ecobank and other officials present the items to authorities at the Korle-Bu Maternal Ward
Ecobank Ghana recently donated medical equipment, computers and scholarships worth over GH?600,000 to various institutions and individuals to mark its fourth annual Ecobank Day.
The annual Ecobank Day is a community-action day set aside to embark on major corporate social responsibility projects across Africa to meet identified societal needs.
The maternal departments of seven hospitals in the country received various sophisticated medical equipment, while three senior high schools in Aflao received 15 computers and 100 career development books
Twenty-five brilliant but needy senior high school students were each awarded three-year full scholarship.
This year’s theme was: ‘Promoting ICT Education and Improving Maternal Health Care in Africa.’
The medical equipment included suction machines, ultrasound machines, incubators, autoclave desktops, delivery beds, infant weighing scales, radiant heaters, phototherapy lights and oxygen concentrators.
Dan Sackey, Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, who presented the medical equipment to the Maternity Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, said similar equipment were presented to six other hospitals in the country.
Other beneficiary hospitals included La General Hospital, Tema Polyclinic, Maternal-Child Health Hospital in Kumasi, Kumasi South Hospital, and Tamale Government Hospital.
Mr Sackey said the bank’s focus on maternal healthcare and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) stemmed from the fact that women in developing countries continued to die from preventable complications.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) report indicated that 830 women died daily from preventable complications associated with pregnancy and childbirth, adding 99 percent of the deaths occurred in developing countries.
“This is lamentable more so for women living in rural and impoverished areas – and this is what drove the decision to use Ecobank Day, this year to help reduce maternal mortality in our countries,” he said.
On ICT, Mr Sackey said recent studies by Aga Khan University in Kenya showed that access to ICT facilities in schools in Africa was 150 students per computer while the ratio was 15 per computer in developed countries.
He said the studies also showed ICT had penetrated all sectors of economies and that showed how important it was to improve ICT studies in schools, hence the decision by Ecobank to help schools with computers this year.
Dr Roberta Lamptey, Acting Medical Director of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, thanked Ecobank for the continuous support to the hospital since 2012 through the provision of $200,000, as well as, GH?25,000 from the Ecobank ladies to the hospital in 2015.