Ecobank Ghana in collaboration with the Ecobank Foundation has donated a cash amount of GHC750,000 as well as personal protective equipment and test kits worth GHC550,000 to the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund.

The cash donation is earmarked to support the construction of an infectious disease isolation and treatment centre at the Ga East Hospital, a project spearheaded by the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund.

The PPEs will be used by health personnel at the facility when it is commissioned in the next few weeks.

The 10,000 test kits are in support of the GCPS-Fund’s ‘Resource and Equip the Frontline’ initiative, which supports the provision of vital logistics and supplies to health professionals at the frontlines of the battle against Covid-19.

At a brief ceremony at the site of the infectious diseases treatment centre project, the managing director of Ecobank, Daniel Sackey, said the donation was in response to President Akufo-Addo’s call for all and sundry to support the nation in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Ghana.

He said aside donations made through the Ghana Bankers’ Association, Ecobank thought it right to directly support the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund with cash and material.

“We at Ecobank are quite proud to be associated with this. The idea is to provide a cash upfront of GHC750,000 to go directly into the construction,” he said. “We also believe that when the project is finished and the medical staff will use it, they should have ready-made PPEs. So, we have provided 1000 sets of PPEs that will be available for the hospital to use.”

Mr. Sackey added: “It is important that when the lab is functional, it should also have the relevant test kits to be able to be operational right from day one,” says Mr. Sackey. “In that context we are also donating 10,000 test kits that can be deployed immediately the facility is opened.”

Managing Trustee of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, Senyo Hosi, who received the donations on behalf of the Fund, thanked Ecobank for their generosity.

“On behalf of the Trustees, we want to say a big thank you to Ecobank for their kind donation to the project both in cash and kind. The PPEs and test kits will go a long way to help us in this fight against Covid-19 and other re-emerging pandemics,” Mr. Hosi stated.

One of the Trustees of the Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, Kwaku Bediako also welcomed the gesture from Ecobank and appealed for more public support to ensure the early completion of the infectious disease treatment and isolation centre.
“We are very grateful for this donation at this point when there is donor fatigue setting in,” Mr Bediako said. “There is a little bit of a shortfall in us getting to the point where we have completely [utilised] all the money required for this but with this donation, it gets us closer to our goal and we very much appreciate it.We want to say thank you very much to Ecobank for being there right from the beginning, from the days of feeding the kayayo all the way up to this point when we are getting very close to finishing the facility.”

Present at the ceremony was the Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute, Abraham Anang, who applauded the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund for initiating the infectious diseases centre project.

“The 100-bed facility is a wonderful and strategic project because it will enable us isolate properly, manage infectious disease properly and focus human capacity in terms of the experts, the health professionals, to align properly and take care of people with infections of similar calibre,” he said.

The 100-bed infectious disease isolation and treatment facility located at the Ga East Hospital in Accra, is being built to cater for the treatment of critically ill Covid-19 patients. It is an initiative of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, with support from several corporate organisations and individuals.