As part of its commitment towards improving health care in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Heineken Africa Foundation (HAF) is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) for the renovation and facility upgrade of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, valued at over N40 million (100,000 Euros).
Speaking on behalf of the Foundation, the Corporate Affairs Director of Nigerian Breweries PLC, Mrs Sade Morgan said “We are delighted to take this important step, which we believe this would go a long way in providing quality health care to new-borns – especially those who may require special attention”.
On his part, the Chief Medical Director, Professor Darlington Obaseki expressed his gratitude to the Foundation for selecting the University of Benin Teaching Hospital for the project. He described the MOU as a significant milestone towards achieving their goal of reducing neo-natal mortality rates in the country.
In his words – “In partnership with the Heineken Africa Foundation, our goal is to reduce our neonatal mortality from 25% (1 in 4) to 10% (1 in 10) by upgrading existing clinical services and institute advanced clinical procedures and interventions. This we hope to do, by constructing and equipping a brand new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and reconstructing the entire Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU), which hopefully will be completed in phases”.
The project is expected to be completed later this year;
Established by the HEINEKEN Company in 2007, the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation has committed over EUR 9.9 million to 111 different projects focused on health and water across Africa.
In Nigeria, some of these projects include the donation of a female orthopaedic ward in Kaduna in 2010; donation of a CT scan (2013) and an Ultrasound scanning machine (2015) at the St. Gerald’s hospital. The foundation has also undertaken several projects at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, the Randle General Hospital in Lagos among others.
For more information about the Heineken Africa foundation, please visit https://africafoundation.heineken.com/
