Business
Sterling Bank Advances Cardiology in Nigeria with Tristate Healthcare
Sterling Bank Plc has successfully provided financing to Tristate Healthcare for the procurement of cutting-edge cardiology equipment and for the acquisition of her location in Lekki, Lagos State. This facility was granted in support of Tristate’s ongoing bid to reposition the company’s services as a state-of-the-art healthcare facility.
Divisional Head, Business Growth and Transaction Banking at Sterling Bank, Obinna Ukachukwu, who disclosed this in a statement issued by the bank yesterday in Lagos, said that the with the intervention, Tristate Healthcare will now be equipped to perform more complex surgeries and expand her roster of healthcare professionals to cater to the specialized needs of cardiology and other healthcare specializations in Nigeria.
Mr. Ukachukwu said, “With this facility, Tristate Healthcare is now equipped to handle as much as 70 percent of open-heart surgeries in the country.”
Group Head for Health Finance at Sterling Bank, Ibironke Akinmade, said the bank’s continued investment in the sector of the country will spur even more growth in Nigeria’s healthcare space , make care accessible to more people, and reduce the incidence of medical tourism by Nigerians for complicated procedures by creating capacity to cater to the nation’s needs with institutions like Tristate Healthcare now equipped to provide care comparable to the best international standards.
According to Akinmade, “Investments such as these have the capacity to spur even more investments in world-class healthcare facilities in Nigeria, thereby making the country destination for medical tourism within the African region, aid growth of healthcare’s contribution to the Nigerian economy and contribute positively to the country’s foreign exchange earnings.”
The multi-billion Naira facility continues Sterling’s record of sizeable and impactful investments in the nation’s healthcare sector, coming on the back of over N 10 billion disbursed to this sector. With ongoing partnerships with multiple state governments in Nigeria, Sterling has been actively involved in the ideation and implementation of recent health-related innovations in the country such as drone deliveries for pharmaceuticals, as well as the setup of statewide health insurance schemes to make care accessible to the citizens of Ekiti, Bayelsa, Cross River, Lagos, and Ekiti to name a few.
The lender was also instrumental in nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic; developing and deploying the test booking platform for travelers inbound and outbound of Nigeria during the height of the pandemic.
As part of its commitment to the improvement of health outcomes in the country, Sterling Bank has entered strategic partnerships and developed healthcare services with several healthcare providers, including Tremendoc and Roche Nigeria Limited.
The bank has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) to enable the federation to provide for the digitization of operations among HFN members.
Health is one of the five sectors in the economy Sterling Bank has been concentrating its investments since 2018. The other sectors are education, agriculture, renewable energy, and transportation.
