Societe Generale Ghana (SG Ghana) has renovated the sixth floor of the Surgical Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), as part of activities to mark the bank’s 20th anniversary.

The renovation, which took five weeks to complete, included the provision of a new bulkhead ceiling for the reception and lounge, replacement of all water closets, wash-hand basins and installation of sliding glass windows in the corridor.

The bank also replaced all rusty and discoloured medical lights, installed fire alarm system, wireless nurse call system and air conditioners in all the wards and offices and painted the floor.

Why the support

During the handing over of the renovated floor of the hospital last Friday,  the Managing Director of the bank, Hakim Ouzzani, said the bank was very proud and delighted to give its contribution and support to the KBTH.

As a bank, he explained, its mission was to support the economy, however, it was also necessary to give back to society as part of its corporate social responsibility.

He said this was the reason it had taken that initiative to support the humanitarian mission of the hospital.

According to Mr Ouzzani, the bank chose the KBTH because it was the most important hospital in the country, stressing that it was the only place the vulnerable population could easily have access to healthcare.

The SG Group’s Deputy Director of Retail Banking for Africa, the Mediterranean Basin and Overseas, Georges Wega, also added that the bank had survived all the economic turbulence for the past 20 years due to the massive support from its client, regulators, partners and staff.

He said all those who supported it were part of the Ghanaian population who had also benefited from the services of the hospital and, therefore, the gesture was the least the bank could do to thank them all.

“We look forward to continuing to build this nation through our humble support to the economy.

We want to continue to listen to the needs of our clients and try as much as possible to respond to those needs in the best possible way,” Mr  Wega stated. 

Appreciation

The Chief Executive Officer of the KBTH, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, said the management and the staff of the hospital  were very grateful to the bank for “this wonderful gesture which comes at the right time when most of our infrastructure are not in good shape.”

He said such gesture would help to reposition the hospital as the leading provider of advanced, tertiary and specialised healthcare in the country and in the West African sub region.

“We are a century old and as you can imagine, a hospital that is 100 years old will definitely have a lot of infrastructure challenges  and so we call on individuals and organisations to adopt other similar projects as the SG Ghana has done and execute them.

At the end of the day, it’s the Ghanaian people who we want to serve and we want to serve them in an ambience that accords them dignity, comfort and makes them more confident in the healthcare delivery system,” Dr Ampomah said. 

Healthcare financing

According to him, the hospital was second to none in terms of healthcare delivery in the sub region and it would continue to improve and make its service available and accessible to Ghanaians.