Monrovia – A Liberian businessman and Philanthropist, Mr. Wilbert D. Merchant has embarked upon building Medical Partnerships with hospitals around the African continent and other parts of the world in his effort to help boost the readiness of the Liberian Health Sector amid the outbreak of the Zika Virus in South America and other parts of the world.
It can be recalled that the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in 2012 had a devastating effect on Liberia primarily due to gross unpreparedness of the Health Sector. In hope of avoiding a repeat of such catastrophe, Mr. Merchant and his Non-profit entity, the Movement of Merchant (MOM) has underscored the need to build Medical Alliances around the world and Africa in particular.
Premised on this, Mr. Merchant recently toured some Health Facilities in the Central African Country of Congo. The tour took him to the Congolese Chinese Friendship Hospital in Brazzaville among others.
There, Mr. Merchant interacted with the hospital’s administrators, doctors, nurses, patients as well as beneficiaries of the medical program. Speaking to a cross-section of reporters upon his return at his office in the Administrative Block at the Headquarter of the Movement of Merchant (MOM),
Mr. Merchant said the visit has given him deep understanding as to the workings of Medical Partnerships; something which he revealed M.O.M has adopted as one of its cardinal projects for the next two years, at its just ended Special Planning Session.
He says the Organization is in consultations with local and foreign health facilities and practitioners to forge collaborations to help booster the Liberian Health Sector. According to him, such partnerships will see the upgrading of the skills of Liberian medical practitioners, improving of existing health facilities as well as constructing new ones and the provision of state of the art equipment and medications.
In a related development, Mr. Merchant also disclosed to reporters that the organization is nearing conclusion with other partners to commence a Five Million Liberian Dollars (LD 5,000,000) micro loan scheme. He says the money will be given out to small scale Liberian businesses to enable them improve upon their already existing operations.
According to him, just a fraction of the loaned-amount will be charged as service fee. This will come as a relief for some business as it has become increasingly difficult to access loans from many banks due to high interest rates, unnecessary administrative bottle-necks and many other reasons. He said however, it will be incumbent upon the beneficiaries of the Loan Scheme to repay the almost-interest-free loan to enable the organization expand the scheme.
Mr. Merchant warned potential loan beneficiaries that they will have to go through the process of due diligence to acquire the loan and will face the full rigors of the law if they should default. He advised that people should desist from the habit of acquiring loans for unproductive activities and rather use their meager finances to empower themselves.
Touching on other issues, Mr. Merchant applauded residents and property owners along the Somalia Drive for the great show of calm they exhibited during the latest demolition exercise carried out by the Special Presidential taskforce headed by Madam Mary Broh.
He said, it is sad to see so many of his compatriots lose their properties, but it was understandable given that it was done for the purpose of developing our underdeveloped country. He posited that the pains felt from the demolition exercise will be relieved when a befitting road is built.
Mr. Merchant was also grateful to the taskforce, especially its head Madam Broh for the level of professionalism demonstrated during the exercise.
He further commended the Good People of Japan and the Japanese Government for their benevolence. He praised the contractors for the good work done so far and entreated them to continue to ensure the safety of the road users during the construction.
During the question and answer period, Richmond Kaydea- Founder of The Richmond Kaydea Forum, quizzed Mr. Merchant if all these philanthropic endeavors were geared toward his rumored Representative bid for District 11 come the 2017 General Elections, in reply, Mr. Merchant explained that it was very easy for one to draw such conclusion given the fact that he is the Vice Chairman for International Affairs of the All Liberian Party, but further explained that his philanthropic work goes as far back as more than a decade and it is not politically driven.
Not satisfied with the response, Mr. Kaydea further queried Mr. Merchant on the significance of the meetings he held with the leadership of the Congolese ruling party during his visit to Congo. Mr. Merchant replied that governments make and drive policies; therefore they must always be regarded as stakeholders and partners in all endeavors targeted at the people.
However touching on the subject in sidelines discussions after the official interactions, Mr. Moses Tiawroh posited that “life is full of many possibilities” and that each one should be fully explored before accepting or rejecting it.