The leading pan-African banking group, the Ecobank Group, has celebrated its eighth annual Ecobank Day, which is the group’s flagship annual event, showing commitment and giving back to its local communities across 33 African countries.
This year’s theme was ‘Take Action Against Diabetes’ and it marked the second stage of a three-year campaign to raise awareness and help prevent non-communicable diseases.
Thus, Ecobank partnered the NCD Alliance, a Geneva-based global civil network dedicated to preventing NCDs all around the world.
Ecobank Group Chief Executive Officer, Ade Adeyemi, said, ‘Diabetes and other non-communicable diseases are on the rise across Africa. Diabetes causes serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves and if not addressed quickly, untimely death.
“Approximately 60 per cent of Africans with diabetes are unaware that they have it and at Ecobank, we are determined to raise awareness about the disease and other NCDs, as well as the importance of healthy lifestyles in preventing these diseases.
“We are working closely with the NCD Alliance to ensure that our three-year campaign has maximum impact in helping to save African lives.”
On her part, the NCD Alliance CEO, Katie Dain, said, “It is fantastic to see such leadership from a bank, in raising awareness of diabetes and other NCDs amongst its employees and communities.
“Effectively addressing NCDs will require collaboration across all sectors, which is why we are very happy about our partnership with Ecobank. We look forward to drawing upon their expertise in financial management to train NCD civil society advocates across the African continent.”
