Temie Giwa-Tubosun Wins Global Citizen Prize for Her Fight Against COVID-19

Temie Giwa-Tubosun has emerged the winner of the 2020 Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader. The 35-year old woman in tech is the founder of LifeBank, a MedTech startup that uses technology to improve blood supply to hospitals.

Since 2016 when LifeBank was launched, the company has made several strides into the healthtech sector, one of which is the launch of AirBank. AirBank makes oxygen supply available to hospitals when they need it and prevents death or unnecessary complications that arise when patients do not have timely access to oxygen.

Giwa-Tubosun won the award for the global business leader on account of her company’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.

LifeBank launched drive-in testing centres in Lagos and Oyo States in partnership with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research. It also partnered with the Oyo State government and Dan Holdings to make oxygen available freely to COVID-19 patients in the state.

Giwa-Tubosun is also recognized for LifeBank’s COVID-19 response — including launching testing centres and free delivery of medical oxygen to COVID-19 patients in isolation centres. 

Global Citizen

Temie Giwa-Tubosun was also recently named as one of the 15 tech founders in this year’s list of 100 Most Influential Young Africans by Avance Media and Africa Youth Awards. As Temie continues to be recognized for her work, LifeBank has also widened its influence to include more African countries. The company recently expanded into Kenya.

Other thing that you should know

There are other categories in the Global Citizen Prize including World Leader, Business Leader, Philanthropy, Culture and Education, Activism and Artist of the Year. Of particular interest is the fact that 4 female leaders emerged the finalists in the category of Global Citizen Prize for World Leader.

The four female finalists are the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva; President of the European Commission (EU), Ursula von der Leyen; and Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima.

Ursula Von der Leyen emerged the winner of the World Leader category, making it the third year in a row that a woman will clinch the award. It puts in the spotlight the incredible leadership that women bring to the community in different sectors.

The awards will be presented during a grand ceremony that will be hosted by John Legend. It can be streamed from December 19 and will have celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Tori Kelly, Jojo and Alessia Cara in attendance. You can find details of how to stream the event here.