First National Bank Ghana has activated its Accelerated Support for Pandemic Intervention and Relief Effort (ASPIRE) programme to assist the government and people of Ghana in their fight against COVID-19. With the initiative, First National Bank Ghana is supporting local entrepreneurs to produce high quality Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to augment supplies to medical facilities.
The first donation under the ASPIRE programme was a cash one to Dr. Elsie Effah-Kaufmann and her team at the Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers (GSBE), to produce 500 face-shields for frontline health workers.
The face-shields will be presented to the 1st Medical Reception Station, a medical facility for the First Infantry Battalion at Michel Camp near Tema. The facility will also be presented with automated refillable soap dispensers, hand sanitisers and disposable head-covers.
“This is the first in the series of interventions under our ASPIRE Fund intended to address critical and immediate health care needs by supporting local medical innovators and entrepreneurs in Ghana,” said Richard Hudson, CEO of First National Bank Ghana.
The team from Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers (GSBE), led by Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann, expressed their gratitude to First National Bank Ghana for leading the way for corporate Ghana; not only in fighting against the COVID-19 outbreak, but also in supporting Ghanaian ingenuity.
“We appreciate the fact that First National Bank Ghana recognises that there is a need for us to join hands to minimise the spread of COVID-19,” Dr. Effah-Kaufmann said. “There is so much we are doing locally in terms of PPEs, which are even scarce globally. I take this opportunity to encourage Ghanaians to patronise and support these innovations, so that we can scale up and maximise our own capabilities to fight this disease.”
For his part, Captain Kevin Delase Amedor thanked First National Bank Ghana for choosing the medical facility of the 1st Infantry Battalion as one of the initial beneficiaries of the ASPIRE programme. “With the help of First National Bank Ghana, we are well-positioned to cater for all within the barracks – Ashaiman, Golf City, Gbetsile, Mataheko and Afienya,” he said.
The Accelerated Support for Pandemic Intervention and Relief Effort (ASPIRE) was recently launched as Ghana’s version of the special initiative rolled out by First National Bank’s parent company, the FirstRand Group in South Africa – SPIRE (South African Pandemic Intervention and Relief Effort).
