COVID-19: MTN Ghana records one death, 138 infections
MTN Ghana has lost one staff to COVID-19 with a total of 138 infections as of February 21.
At least 57 of the staff are receiving treatment, and the firm is “thankful that 80 of those have since recovered although sadly, one employee has passed on”.
“Our thoughts are with the family of our lost colleague and with the nation as we go through these tough times together,” the firm revealed in its report for 2020.
Due to the impact of the pathogen on lives and economic activity, MTN Ghana has to spend GH¢139 million on COVID-19 initiatives in the last year.
To support the fight, MTN Ghana Foundation donated GH¢5 million worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essentials to the government’s COVID-19 Trust Fund for onward distribution to frontline medical workers.
The largest telecommunication firm in Ghana by market share rolled out zero charges on Mobile Money transfers up to a value of GH¢100 per day in March 2020.
The firm further rolled out zero charges on access to public websites providing health and other COVID-19 related information.
“We provided free access to over 200 websites for academic use by public and private educational institutions and committed to continue to provide this until the end of the pandemic.
“MTN Ghana further provided free data, to four to five million students and teachers in support of their learning and teaching needs and awarded further scholarships to 100 students in various tertiary institutions as part of the Bright Scholarship initiative for 2020”.
The fight against the pandemic continued into 2021 and with MTN Group announcing its $25 million to support the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccination programme.
The donation is to support the acquisition of 7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for health workers across the continent, contributing to the vaccination initiative of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
As part of its 25th anniversary in 2021, MTN said it was committing the equivalent of $25 million (or GH¢150 million) to a fund supporting Ghana’s post-COVID-19 recovery efforts.
MTN Ghana assured of support to customers while ensuring network resilience and efficiency in delivering voice, data, digital services in Mobile Money services.
The firm said they have deployed PPEs and sanitisers and ensures adherence to all COVID-19 safety protocols across its branch network and offices.