MTN Ghana Takes Yello Care Support to Maamobi Hospital

MTN Ghana has extended its annual Y’ello Care employee-volunteer programme to Maamobi General Hospital in Accra, refurbishing hospital beds and settling outstanding medical bills for discharged patients who cannot pay, in a demonstration of what the telecoms giant says should become a national model for corporate involvement in healthcare.

Steven Blewett, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, said the company has already refurbished 1,700 beds across participating hospitals, along with furniture and wooden pieces reupholstered in hospital wings. The initiative forms part of the 21-day Y’ello Care campaign, during which MTN staff volunteer their time, skills, and resources at selected health facilities across the country.

“You can hear them laughing because it is a fun event because people enjoy giving,” Blewett said at the launch event at Maamobi. “I think that as responsible citizens of our country, each big corporate should go out and do this. If every major corporate in Ghana did this, imagine what our healthcare system will look like as we continue to contribute to it.”

The Maamobi intervention arrives at a time when Ghana’s public health facilities are under considerable strain. The Nkwanta South Municipal Hospital in the Oti Region recently issued a public appeal for government support as its infrastructure continues to deteriorate, underscoring the gap that private-sector partnerships such as Y’ello Care are attempting to narrow.

Joining MTN in the effort is DOSH Health Insurance, which has committed a GH₵1 million medical-support package to cover bills for patients who have been discharged but are unable to settle their accounts. Belinda Amoo, Head of Sales and Marketing at DOSH, said the company decided to partner with MTN because both organisations share a commitment to improving healthcare access for ordinary Ghanaians.

“We decided to partner MTN on their 21 Days Y’ello Care because they called on us and we are also already in the health space providing medical insurance for Ghanaians,” Amoo said. “This 1 million Ghana cedis is going to pay for the medical bills for people who are on admission and have been discharged but are unable to pay for the bills.”

The DOSH package will extend to all facilities participating in the Y’ello Care campaign. After Maamobi, the programme is scheduled to visit approximately eight additional health facilities across the country before the 21-day period concludes.

The question of how Ghana funds and maintains its hospital infrastructure has been a persistent national concern. The Heal Komfo Anokye Project, launched by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to raise $10 million for the renovation of the country’s second-largest referral hospital, has itself become mired in controversy over accountability and governance, illustrating both the scale of the challenge and the complexities of mobilising resources for public health.

MTN’s Y’ello Care programme, now a fixture across the company’s operating markets in Africa, represents one of the more sustained examples of structured corporate volunteerism on the continent. Whether such initiatives can meaningfully shift the needle on Ghana’s healthcare infrastructure gaps remains an open question, but at Maamobi General Hospital this week, the immediate impact was tangible: beds repaired, bills settled, and a message sent that the private sector has a role to play beyond quarterly earnings.

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