Ghana’s Insurance Giant, Provident Insurance has committed to devoting a daring five hundred and fifty thousand cedis (GHc550,000) every year, towards the fight against the scourge of Breast Cancers and its attendant high rate of needless deaths among women in Ghana.

The amount which represents the company’s corporate social responsibility towards healthcare needs of the country will support advocacy, capacity building, treatment and free breast screening outreaches.

Management of Provident Insurance and Directors of Breast Care International (BCI) – the Project Implementers and Partners signed off the Memorandum Of Understanding at a colorful signing ceremony in Kumasi to formalize the official commencement of the noble project.

The terms of the agreement stipulates a 500-thousand-cedi insurance cover to the Breast Care International and a fifty-thousand-cedi annual cash transfer to support BCI’s patient care and free nationwide breast screening outreaches.

Chief Executive Officer of BCI, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai noted that the support empowers her organization to expand its Early Detection for Early Treatment outreaches to a wider number of institutions and rural communities virtually cut off from breast cancer awareness.

She indicated, “Breast Care International travels out of the cities to reach rural communities, religious institutions and schools where we create awareness about breast cancer, how women can do their own breast self-examination and the importance of early detection.”

Dr. Wiafe Addai further expressed concern several women are turning up at the hospital with advanced stages of malignant breast cancer because of a lack of awareness, fear of death, the scare of losing their breasts, the stigma and erroneous myths surrounding the disease.

The number of women dying from breast cancer in Ghana on a year to year basis, has continued to rise since the year 2000 reaching a high of over 2,900 deaths in the year 2019 alone, ranking it among the most common cancers among women in Ghana.

She told Ultimate News’ reporter Ivan Heathcote – Fumador that the Provident Insurance support will augment other fund pooling avenues like BCI’s Breast Fund which is open to donations, to mobilize breast cancer survivors, the equipment and logistics required to hit the hardest to reach communities to reverse the worrisome trend.

Provident Insurance Intervention

Chief Executive Officer of Provident Insurance, Michael Justice Ashong was elated, these interventions heralding the company’s 40th Anniversary is making lasting and lifesaving impact in the lives of women and girls who form a critical mass of Ghana’s gender demographic.

In an interview with Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador, Mr. Ashong recounted, “BCI has shown us women who have survived breast cancers because their conditions were identified early and treated.

“When we saw the amount of money needed to go through the process, we took notice that we have mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters and friends who may suffer from breast cancer. Prudential Insurance decided that if we want to support society, this is one of the areas that we must add on,” he noted.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by principal and long serving clients of Provident Insurance, who graced the occasion to learn about the operations and good standing of the insurance Company and its numerous achievements and Corporate Social interventions.

Beyond the Breast Care mission, Provident Insurance supports breast Cancer Departments of Ghana’s major Referral Facilities and Children’s Hospitals which have in the past year, received equipment valued in excess of 350 thousand cedis.

The Insurance Colossus further briefed its clients on the number of Tertiary Institutions where the company has advanced separate tranches of over GHc50, 000 each to support several brilliant but needy students who would have ordinarily dropped out of school for their inability to pay fees.

40YRS Standing

Provident Insurance has for the past 40 years demonstrated its prowess ranking among the most guaranteed and secure Insurance Institution growing its assets to 112 million by end of year 2022.

Despite the haircuts incurred as a result of Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange program, Provident Insurance grew its profits by some 221% on the back of a combined equity and capital of 75 million in 2022.

Despite the blanket directive baring companies from paying dividends, Provident Insurance was cleared by the industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NIC) to pay dividends to its shareholder on the back of its healthy books.

By: Ivan Heathcote – Fumador.