NSE, CECP move to check rising cancer deaths in Nigeria

TO check the rising cancer deaths in the country, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), in collaboration with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), has launched a scheme, ‘Race Against Cancer’ as part of the ‘Big War Against Cancer’ initiated by CECP towards raising funds to acquire Mobile Cancer Centres (MCC) for the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Part of the move to tackle the dreaded disease is establishing a Comprehensive Cancer Centre (CCC) in the country for effective management and treatment of the disease to reduce the mortality rate associated with it and cash flow outside Nigeria for its treatment in foreign countries.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday in Lagos to roll out the programmes lined up for this year’s campaign against the disease, the General Manager, Corporate Services of NSE, Bola Adeeko, noted that while the primary mandate of the organisation is to raise capital for companies, it has also taken up the responsibility of making people become good corporate citizens.

The five-kilometre race, according to Adeeko, was organised for listed companies in the stock exchange and the capital market community to raise funds for the war against cancer and the proceeds used to procure MCC across the country.

The Chairman of CECP and the ‘Giving Tide’, an arm of the organisation that seeks donation from individuals and corporate bodies, Prof. Pat Utomi, said a nation cannot create wealth if her people are not healthy, noting that NSE is all about wealth creation.

According to him, a country is measured by how the wellbeing of its people enables them produce and have a quality of life that take them out of misery.

Making reference to prominent people that have fallen to this ailment in the recent years, Utomi stated that the country has lost huge human capital in their deaths. He called for a total commitment to the fight against the disease by all corporate bodies so as to bring it under control.

Faulting what he called the ugly belief of some Nigerians who feel they can escape certain problems in the country with what they have accumulated, Utomi called for collaboration and cooperation by all well-meaning Nigerians to fight the war against cancer that is killing both the rich and the poor in the country.

“One Mobile Centre can go through several communities, going to rural areas and meet people and more of them can detect the disease and it can be dealt with early. The cost to the society of the burden of cancer would drop dramatically.

“Think of how much Naira converted to dollars, and whatever currency, that leaves our shores on daily basis to foreign countries for the treatment and management of this disease. If we had this very limited investment in this MCC change, and we can grow this economy with the savings, we would have provided a better quality of life for all of us.”