By Tosin Olatokunbo
Unity Bank Plc has unveiled UnityCare to support major stakeholders in the nation’s health sector as part of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN credit support intervention fund.
In a statement, the Tomi Somefun-led bank said it will provide soft loans through UnityCare in the areas of development, manufacturing, distribution and consumption of health care products in the country.
Unity Bank is “Leveraging on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s credit support intervention for the health sector, UnityCares hopes to empower as many enterprises as meet the requirements for the facility,” adding that the target beneficiaries of the credit scheme include health care product manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs and medical equipment, healthcare service providers/medical facilities such as hospitals/clinics.
Others are diagnostic centres/laboratories, fitness and wellness centres, rehabilitation centres, dialysis centres and blood bank operators.
They also “include the pharmaceutical/medical products distribution and
logistics services and other human healthcare service providers as may
be determined by the CBN from time to time,” the statement said.
Both account holders and non account owners can benefit from the product, the bank said.
According to the bank “To benefit from the UnityCares facility, a healthcare organisation may not need an account with Unity Bank to benefit from the on-lending scheme.”
Olufunwa Akinmade, Divisional Head, Retail, SME & E-business while commenting on the product said UnityCare presents an opportunity for health care manufacturers to expand capacity in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.
We “encourage operators in the health sector to take advantage of this affordable facility to expand their capacity while playing their part in curbing medical tourism and conserving the desperately needed foreign exchange,” he said.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the health sector have welcome UnityCare which they insist is a good way by the bank to inject capital into the sector after the hit on businesses as a result of COVID 19.
