Standard Bank offers training to Global Fund grant recipients

grantees of the Global Fund to the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, have recently attended to training free of charge, in financial management to ensure better accountability, to the Fund and other donors.

Promoted by Standard Bank, the training course was held in Maputo between 13th and 17th of September as part of the partnership agreement signed in December 2008, between the Standard Bank Group and the Global Fund for the fight against the 3 main diseases with devastating repercussions in the african continent, namely AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Under this partnership Standard Bank offers financial advisory services to the recipients of the Fund striving to strengthen their financial management capabilities.

As a fundamental part of its social responsibility program, Standard Bank, through this project will help ensure that Global Fund resources are distributed timely in country, and that the managers of these funds can meet the requirements of the Fund with the knowledge acquired during the training in financial management.

Standard Bank's contribution in the fight against these
diseases aims to enable more people to have access to medication and health services: "This is another demonstration that we are much more than just a Bank, but a faithful partner of our communities, particularly in Africa", said António Coutinho, Managing Director of Standard Bank Mozambique.

"Malaria, AIDS and Tuberculosis are diseases that have a drastic impact in our society, therefore this is Standard Bank´s response in order to train staff that is directly committed to fight these diseases", commented the Managing Director.

In his turn, Maurício Cysne from CCM - Country Coordinating Mechanism, indicated that for round nine granted by the Global Fund in Mozambique for malaria and AIDS, there have been allocated approximately $350 million U.S. dollars to a five year period.

Since its establishment in 2008, Standard Bank has been a partner of the Global Fund in the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and has offered financial services to the grant recipients of the funds at no cost. After Lesotho, Nigeria, Swaziland and Uganda in the pilot phase in 2009, Mozambique is part of the second group of countries to benefit from this training.