Ghana receives MTN sponsored AstraZeneca – Covid 19 vaccines

Ghana receives MTN sponsored AstraZeneca

MTN’s US$25 million donation to support the African Union’s (AU’s)

COVID-19 vaccination programme is on track to administer

165,000 AstraZeneca doses to health workers.

The vaccines arrived in the country two days ago and were

received at the Kotoka International Airport by Dr Mathew Kyeremeh,

Chairman of the Health Commodities Group for COVID-19 of

the Ministry of Health.

Dr Kyeremeh expressed his gratitude to MTN and said the

vaccines were going to be administered to people with

underlying conditions and frontline workers.

In a major commitment to the health of the continent,

MTN made the commitment in January 2021 to accelerate

the AU’s critical program. This was aimed at securing up to

seven million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine overall,

to be spread across all 55 AU member states, for healthcare

workers specifically. “While the facilitation of the vaccination

program is in the hands of the Africa CDC and the African

Union Vaccination Acquisition Task Team, MTN is encouraged

to see a clear plan and strong, accelerated move towards keeping

Africa and its people safe and healthy. This is part of our ongoing

commitment to ensure that Ghana and Africa as a whole,

is not left behind,” says Selorm Adadevoh, Chief Executive Officer

of MTN Ghana. “As a company that is committed to the

prosperity and progress of Ghana and indeed the continent,

for MTN’s part, we are proud to be able to make a humble

contribution to the millions of vaccine doses needed to reach

herd immunity,” he said. “We are excited and grateful to be

receiving this share of the first  one million doses as part of

the AU’s accelerated vaccine program,

supported by MTN.  While we are still in the early stages of the

vaccine race, this initial contribution offers some very welcome

relief as we start seeing the programme coming to fruition to the

benefit of our dedicated healthcare workers,”

says Kwaku Agyeman Manu, Minister of Health.

MTN continues to call on all large corporates across industry

sectors, to play their part by contributing to this and similar

initiatives that can fast-track the rollout of much-needed

vaccines to help get the virus under control. Following the

outbreak of Coronavirus in Ghana, the MTN Ghana Foundation

has supported Ghanaians with some major interventions to lessen

the impact of the pandemic. MTN donated GHc5 million worth

of PPEs to the National Covid Trust Fund. Again, the Foundation

donated essential equipment to the Noguchi Memorial Institute

for Medical Research to enable rapid testing and data processing.

The Foundation also donated over 80,00 face masks to 30 hospitals

across the country. With the surge in COVID-19 cases in 2021,

the Foundation recently donated PPEs to 15 Senior High Schools

and 29 Hospitals. MTN Ghana also zero-rated several public websites

providing health and other COVID-19 related information as well as over

200 websites for academic use by public and private educational institutions.

Other educational campaigns such as the ‘BE WISE’ campaign and

MTN’s global ‘#WearItForMe’ marketing initiative were undertaken

to build awareness around the importance of correctly wearing a

face mask to combat the spread of the virus.

As at the end of December 2020, the cumulative value of MTN

Ghana’s efforts to fighting COVID-19 was GH¢139 million.

MTN Ghana is the market leader in the increasingly competitive

mobile telecommunications industry in Ghana, offering subscribers

a range of exciting options under Pay Monthly and Pay As You

Go Services and Mobile Financial Services.

The company has committed itself to delivering reliable and innovative

services that provide value for subscribers in Ghana’s telecommunications market.

Since its entry into Ghana in 2006, MTN has continuously invested in

expanding and modernising its network in order to offer superior

services to a broad expanse of the nation.