UBA Commits $1million To Fight Ebola

Tony Elumelu
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Board Chairman, Tony O Elumelu, has announced the donation of $1 million to assist the fight against Ebola.

The disease has mostly afflicted people in three West African countries, where UBA does business – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

The donation will be distributed through the UBA Foundation, UBA's corporate social responsibility arm and shared equally among the three affected West African countries.

The remaining $100,000 is to be contributed to the African Union Support Mission to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA), initiated by the African Union Chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

'Africa is our home and our destiny – and Africans need to place themselves at the forefront of the campaign to overcome this tragedy.  This donation is an affirmation of our unshakeable commitment to the continent – and a message that Africa can triumph over this terrible affliction.

'I would also take this opportunity to commend our courageous UBA Africa staff, in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone who have kept every branch and ATM open throughout this testing time. They have demonstrated our corporate value of resilience and commitment that the business and progress of Africa must and should go on,' said Mr. Elumelu.

In August, the Tony Elumelu Foundation donated $600,000 to the same cause, making unrestricted grants to the Ebola response institutions, designated by the Presidents of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Acknowledging the donation by the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said, 'While we have mobilized our national resources as best we can, they are still inadequate to respond to an epidemic of this scale; we appreciate friends of Liberia, like you, who have come to our assistance in our national moment of need.'