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Keystone Bank Limited has gone into collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Eye Foundation to support the transport sector. The initiative is geared towards helping to improve road safety and save lives.
Managing Director/Chief Executive, Keystone Bank Limited, Mr. Philip Ikeazor, disclosed this in Abuja, at the launch of the bank's "Think Road Safety, Save Lives".
Ikeazor said the initiative would provide free screening to inter-state commercial transport drivers for diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol as well as ascertain their level of blood group.
The scheme will also carry out test for glaucoma, visual acuity, and automated refraction eye test.
He estimated the global annual cost of road traffic injuries to be about $518 billion. The low and middle income countries he explained, accounted for $65 billion of the total figure.
Justifying the bank's intervention in the sector, Ikeazor, while quoting statistics from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, said road crashes had become the leading cause of death for youths aged 15-29 years. He said Nigeria accounted for over 85 per cent of global deaths from road crashes.
He said: " Accidents involving buses have a higher impact with respect to human fatalities as they account for larger number of passengers . From 2007 to 2010, buses caused 5,583 deaths in 5,828 road crashes ( less crashes but more deaths); while small vehicles accounted for 1,154 deaths in 2,094 road crashes within the same period."
The Keystone Bank boss said the alarming information further justified the bank's intervention as a way of supporting the FRSC in ensuring a downward trend in the number of lives lost on the roads.
He added the scheme was part of the lenders four- cardinal corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy, which focuses the health, education, women and youth empowerment and staff volunteering.
Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka, commended the bank's gesture and urged other institutions to follow suit.
He said: " We require more of this because campaign against road carnage is not a quick fix, it is not a once and for all business, it is rather a conscious and sustained programme of actions to change the attitude of the people through enlightenment and enforcement strategies."
He said public awareness and accessibility to the needed medical facilities were crucial to maximising the benefits of the scheme, which is expected to last for one year.
Chidoka added: "Compulsory eyes test is one condition that applicants for the new driver's license must fulfil in order to determine their visual acuity before their licenses are issued. We insisted this because we realised the nexus between driver's good eyesight and the success of the campaign for safe driving and crash-free roads."
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