Koolboks, the fastest growing startup, providing solar-powered refrigeration system to Nigerian market and sub-Saharan Africa, and Inclusive Energy UK, a company intent on providing lasting solutions to the problem of irregular power in Nigeria, have boosted the pharmacy section of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) with solar-powered refrigerators.
The donation was in furtherance of the companies’ firm belief in the preservation of lives through effective storage systems with emphasis on vaccines and other drugs, which are temperature-sensitive.
Sponsored by Inclusive Energy, UK, in conjunction with Koolboks, the gesture was aimed at ensuring that the hospital’s pharmacy is empowered to effectively store their vaccines and other cold chain medicines for the benefits of the public without relying on the public power source with attendant failures.
Speaking during the presentation of the product at the hospital recently, Dr. Bamidele Ayodele, the Deputy Director of Clinical Services and Training, who represented the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Professor Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, appreciated Koolboks and Inclusive Energy UK for the gesture, saying the donation would go a long way in assisting their vaccine cold chain.
Dr. Ayodele said: “I am here on behalf of the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Professor Adetokunbo Fabamwo, and we are conveying our appreciation to Koolboks for finding us worthy of being one of the recipients of your products.
“I am particularly happy because this is an indigenous solution that can help to solve our local problems in Nigeria here and Africa as a whole.
“As we speak now, we are having challenges with our power supply system because of irregular electricity. So having something like this which is independent of electricity supply and generator is something very very appealing to us particularly because of some very special agents like vaccine. Vaccines are very temperature-sensitive. So it will be very bad to give vaccines that are no longer potent because you have broken the cold chain.
“So this will go a long way in ensuring that we are giving regular and potent vaccines to our patients. We are very appreciative of Koolboks and will like to further thank you very much for this product and what it is going to add to our cold chain value.”
Pharm S. A. Lateef, the HOD Pharmacy, expressed profound gratitude to Koolboks for this laudable initiative and corporate social responsibility to LASUTH.
Speaking similarly, Dr Oluwatoyin Ojo, a clinical and public health pharmacist, and the focal person for this donation, said the Koolboks product is very timely at a time the nation is grappling with poor power supply.
“I work to ensure the procurement of vaccines and also making sure that such vaccines are stored under appropriate conditions and environment to maintain their integrity and potency so as to ensure that patients have the best outcome during vaccination exercise.
“The Koolboks product is going to impact positively on our storage. We are all familiar with the situation in the country as it has to do with epileptic electricity supply and when you think of alternative sources of electricity like generators, you will have the high price of fuel and diesel to contend with because they are on the increase.
“Availability of the fuel and diesel is also the challenge because sometimes there are long queues at the filling stations. So when we have access to such products as Koolboks refrigerators that are powered by solar energy, we can not but be appreciative.
“So with this product, we can go to bed because we are assured that our medications and vaccines requiring cold chain are in good shape and also are in conditions that patients can benefit from them. So this product brings a lot of relief to us.”
Further appreciating Inclusive Energy and Koolboks, Dr. Ojo said; “We are tremendously grateful to the organisations, Koolboks Nigeria Limited and their partner, Inclusive Energy, UK that have supported us.
“ ~We are very much appreciative of them and~ Our desire is that they grow in leaps and bounds and that they would be able to reach to the nooks and crannies of this nation with this product, and they are able to add value to life, homes, as well as individuals. May God bless them abundantly for coming to us with this very important product,” she said.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Abiodun Olamilekan, the Head of Operations, Koolboks, said the gesture, which is in partnership with Inclusive Energy, was part of their corporate social responsibility, explaining that Koolboks had been making similar donations in the past years.
“In the last three and half years, this is what we have been doing, impacting the lives of individuals and ensuring that vaccines maintained their potencies with our products.
“We are here today to contribute our own quota as part of our corporate social responsibility and in appreciation of what LASUTH has been doing and also to be part of the process of saving lives.
“It is also to give them our own form of support and to encourage them to do more as they have been doing.”
On her own, Felicia Onwudinjo, also of Koolboks, said the donation was part of giving back to the society, noting that their joy would be that lives were saved because vaccines were preserved with Koolboks products.
“What we have come to do today is like a give-back to. It’s part of giving back to the society.
“If the hospitals can use and leverage our products to save lives, I think it is a big achievement to us, and it is also very satisfying.
“If you notice in Africa, just about 17 percent of the entire population has access to refrigeration because of poor power supply and this is in sharp contrast with European society which has one hundred percent electricity penetration. Electricity helps in so many ways, particularly in the preservation of vaccines.
“Now with the introduction of Koolboks solar-powered refrigeration system, we have been able to bridge that gap and ensure that both homes and hospitals can have an uninterrupted cooling system,” she said.
Meanwhile, highlights of the occasion was the formal handing over of the product to the hospital management, which elicited joy and further appreciation from members of staff present.