AGC Exhibits Corporate Responsibility

Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) has donated 100 million cedis to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital at a short ceremony in Accra.

Mr. Kwaku Akosah Bempah, Special Assistant to the Chief Executive of Ashanti, did the presentation on behalf of Ashanti, while Professor Alfred Neequaye of the Department of Medicine, received the cheque on behalf of the hospital.

In a short address, Mr. Akosah Bempah said the core business of Ashanti Goldfields is to explore, mine, process and export gold, but the company has been at the forefront in the development of the country's heath sector since its inception.

Mr Akosah Bempah said Ashanti has set up hospitals, manned by qualified medical doctors and nurses in Obuasi, Bibiani, Iduapriem, Siguiri in Guinea, Geita in Tanzania and Bindura in Zimbabwe. "These medical facilities were initially meant for the company workers and their spouses but currently they have extended their services to the public, especially the communities and surrounding villages around the operations", he noted.

He observed that given the life-saving services provided by the hospital, business would be doing greater services to the country, if companies and individuals donate massively towards the rehabilitation and modernisation of the hospital, adding "we must all help in creating the right environment.

Professor Neequaye noted that the relations between Korle Bu and Ashanti Goldfields date as far back as the 1980s when Ashanti voluntarily rehabilitated the Medical Block 2 at their own expense.

He commended Ashanti Goldfields for its gesture and urged other companies to assist the hospital management to turn Korle Bu into a centre for medical excellence for the benefit of all Ghanaians.