Sterling Bank Plc has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Roche Nigeria Limited on breast cancer financing at a single digit interest rate.
The product, known as RupeFlexi, was designed by Roche, mDoc and will be implemented with some of the leading cancer treatment centres in Nigeria to combat breast cancer in its early stages.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, executive director, Corporate and Investment Banking with Sterling Bank, Yemi Odubiyi, said the bank was partnering with Roche because health is a key part of Sterling’s HEART strategy.
Other sectors in the HEART’s of Sterling programme include; education, agriculture, renewable energy and transportation.
Odubiyi remarked that concerns about health have become very real across the world because of the adverse effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy in the last 18 months.
He highlighted Sterling Bank’s significant and consistent investment in the health sector in recent times in partnership with federal agencies and state governments across the country, including the setting up of a N1 billion Health Workers’ Fund to augment the hazard allowance being paid to health workers, among others.
He explained that the bank’s partnership with Roche would not be a one-off but a reminder of her standing commitment to the development of the Nigerian healthcare industry.
Also speaking, divisional head, Health and Education Sectors with Sterling Bank, Mr. Obinna Ukachukwu, described the MoU as a historic landmark for financing in the healthcare industry.
He disclosed that under the partnership, the bank will extend financing of up to N10 million for a tenor of four years at a single interest rate of nine per cent to cancer patients in stages one and two.
Source: leadership