Temie Giwa-Tubosun, the founder of LifeBank has been named the winner of the 2020 Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader.
Giwa-Tubosun was recognized for her work as a health advocate in addressing blood shortages in Nigeria; her innovative use of technology, and the partnerships she has harnessed to expand initiatives.
Furthermore, she was recognised for LifeBank’s COVID-19 response in creating a national register, launching testing centers, and free delivery of medical oxygen to COVID-19 patients in isolation centers.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun: Saving Lives with LifeBank and other initiatives
Giwa-Tubosun and her team at LifeBank are working to solve a lot of these problems and, so far, the company has transported over 25,000 medical products, served more than 600 hospitals, and saved at least 10,000 lives.
LifeBank also launched AirBank, a platform to order and deliver emergency oxygen cylinders across Nigeria, in 2018. The company then went on to launch a digital blood and oxygen bank in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, in July 2020.
Apart from the LifeBank app, Giwa-Tubosun and her organization have used blockchain technology to create SmartBag, which registers and protects information about blood supply, reducing risks of infections.
COVID-19 Contributions
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, the company launched QuipbyLifeBank, a national register to trace functioning medical equipment, including ventilators, respirators, and ICU beds, across Nigerian hospitals. It has been able to identify more than 700 pieces of medical equipment in Nigeria (as of April), expanded the database to include Kenya, and has plans to include Ethiopia and Ghana.
In April 2020, LifeBank launched two free drive-through mobile testing centers in Lagos and Oyo with the support of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), and partnered with the Oyo state government and investment group Dan Holdings to provide free delivery of medical oxygen to COVID-19 patients in two isolation centers.
For her work, Giwa-Tubosun has been awarded the Solve Initiative Award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Tech Entrepreneur Award from the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF), the Africa Netpreneur Award, and the Jack Ma African Business Award.
In June 2020, when she was named a Cartier Women’s Initiative Laureate for Sub-Saharan Africa, she said: “A woman who carries a baby, who gives birth to a baby, should get to watch that baby grow up. It’s our responsibility to ensure that maternal death during childbirth becomes something of history. This is what I was meant to do with my life. I feel a sense of calling while solving this problem.”
Profile
Born in Ila Orangun, Osun State, in 1985, Giwa-Tubosun is a graduate of Minnesota State University, Moorhead, and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, with degrees in political science and international health systems management.
The Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader award recognizes an individual in the business community who has combined business goals with positive human impact.
