Stanbic Bank dashes customer GH₵80,000 on top of GH₵30,000 loan for baby’s heart surgery

Stanbic Bank Ghana has defied the shrewdness of banks when low income earners apply for loans, by going the extra mile to donate GH₵80,000 towards the heart operation of a customer’s son.

The bank took it generosity card out when the mother of a two-month-old baby suffering from heart disease applied for a GH₵30,000 loan to seek urgent medical attention for her son.

Little Abdul Yusuf Rauf’s mother, Ms Mariam Sulemana, turned to her bank for a loan when all efforts to raise funds for the critical heart surgery failed.

It turned out to be a good decision.

Through engagement, a staff of the bank got to know that the amount applied for could barely cover 23 per cent of the cost of treatment, estimated at $27,000 (about GH¢152,958).

So, the staff rallied themselves to raise GH₵40,000, while the bank topped up with GH₵40, 000.

The Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, Mr Alhassan Andani, expressed delight that the staff went great lengths to support their customers.

He said the bank, aside from its core business, also played several roles in the life of its customers by ensuring their welfare and promoting their interest.

“Saving this child is very crucial to us because we don’t know the destiny he holds, it could be possible that he may become the Managing Director of Stanbic Bank or even far better. We will put in our efforts to ensure that he is saved,” Mr Andani stated.

The child was born with a critical heart disease and needed to undergo two procedures to save him.

The first stage of the procedure entails creating a channel in one of the internal walls of the heart to improve oxygenation.

The other procedure is the open-heart operation, which actually switches the blood vessels to what they ought to be. Both procedures will be performed outside the country.

Ms Sulemana, who could not control her tears, expressed profound gratitude to the bank and the staff for their support, saying she least expected that the bank could go that extra mile to raise such an amount to support her child.

“All hopes were lost, I thought I was going to lose my child, I didn’t know where I was going to get such an amount of money from. I can’t thank Stanbic Bank enough for what they’ve done for me, I am most grateful,” Mrs Sulemana, who is a nurse, said.