The founder of FCMB Group, Otunba Olasubomi Balogun, has donated the N5bn to Otunba Tunwase National Pediatrics Centre, located at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, to the University of Ibadan, its College of Medicine and the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
The official handover was held in Lagos at a ceremony where a Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at facilitating a smooth daily running of the medical facility, was signed by the beneficiary institutions.
The MoU was signed after a meeting between Balogun, the Group Chief Executive of FCMB Group Plc, Ladi Balogun, who is the chairman of the Board of Otunba Tunwase National Paediatrics Centre, the management of the University of Ibadan and its College of Medicine, led by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Idowu Olayinka as well as the management of the University College Hospital, led by its Chief Medical Director, Professor Abiodun Otegbayo.
Balogun said: “when I took over the equipment of the children’s hospital in the UCH Ibadan, I was exposed to the true plight of sick children.
“The Late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti had attended a function where I was honoured for my philanthropic activities. So, he said Otunba, ‘You’ve impressed me, one thing you could still do for this country is, give us a prototype of the great ORMOND StreetHospital in London, which is talked about everywhere in the world’.
“And I asked him, how much do you think this would cost? And he was like, ‘by the time you spend N50m, it would be done’. And the good Lord provided me with the funds needed to execute it.”