By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos INVESTADVOCATE)-UBA Foundation, the corporate social platform of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has donated incubators to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, as part of the campaign by the Foundation to give as many premature babies as possible a chance of living through the donation of modern Incubators to teaching hospitals across the country.

This is contained in a Statement from Abdul Imoyo, Media Relations of the bank and made available to InvestAdvocate in Lagos Nigeria.

This is coming on the heels of the bank’s commitment to the development of Nigeria’s health sector especially in the area of improving and contributing to the reduction of infant mortality rate in the country.

Ijeoma Aso, managing director/chief executive officer (MD/CEO) of the Foundation, said that UBA places high priority to the health sector and that the donation to the hospitals was in fulfillment of the foundation’s key objective of improving the lives and well being of the communities where UBA has presence.

According to Aso, the donation of the Incubators is an ongoing project of the foundation with more teaching hospitals across the country lined up to benefit from the gesture.

Obinna Onodugo, acting medical director of UNTH said some of the teaching hospital’s old Incubators were purchased as far back as 1972, 41 years ago, when some of its consultants   now were yet to be  born.

“So you can see why we are very grateful to UBA for this wonderful gesture,” Onodugo said. said

He commended UBA for the kind gesture, noting that this would go a long way in increasing the survival chances of babies born with health challenges requiring the use of Incubators.

On his part, Aminu Zakari Mohammed of AKTH said the donation as timely and would go a long way in reducing infant mortality in the country. “We assure UBA that this gesture will be well utilized as we have a culture of maintaining our equipment,” he said.

While Mohammed Sani Mijinyawa, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee AKTH, his brief remarks said that the donation of incubators to the teaching hospital is the first of its kind by any corporate body or financial institution, while Mohammed Suleiman, director administration of AKTH said that this gesture will outlive the bank as whoever helps save a life, has helped save humanity.

Similarly, Ifeoma Emordi,  head of department of Pediatrics, UNTH, expressed appreciation to the bank emphasizing that the donation would help in fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between the hospital and the bank.

On his part, Casmir Molokwu, Regional Bank Head, Enugu, UBA Plc, who led the delegation to the UNTH Enugu, affirmed that UBA’s commitment to doing business in a sustainable way by supporting the communities where it operates.

Similarly, Abubakar Bello, directorate head, Far North Bank, , said that he has been a beneficiary of the AKTH’s expertise in managing the health of his twin babies at infancy through the Special Care Baby Unit of the hospital.  ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…“UBA understands clearly what it means to partner and support health institutions across the country including AKTH and the bank will continue to partner and support AKTH in any way possible,” Bello said.

The highlight of the visit was when the UBA delegation was taken round the ‘new born units’ to see some of newborn premature babies whose lives depend on the incubators. With the new incubators donated by UBA foundation, many more of the babies born “premature” now have a higher chance of survival.