Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), a leading pan-African bank, has announced the donation of $1 million to support the fight against the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa.

The UBA Foundation, which is the company’s social responsibility arm, will fund this initiative and split the money equally among the three affected West African countries where UBA does business.

$100,000 is to be contributed to the African Union Support Mission to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA), initiated by the African Union Chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

“Africa is our home and our destiny – and Africans need to place themselves at the forefront of the campaign to overcome this tragedy”, said Elemelu. He explained that the donation is a declaration of their firm commitment to the continent, sending a message that Africa can triumph over this terrible affliction.

In August, The Tony Elumelu Foundation donated $600,000 to the same cause, making unrestricted grants to the Ebola response institutions designated by the Presidents of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recognized this donation in a statement. “While we have mobilized our national resources as best we can, they are still inadequate to respond to an epidemic of this scale; we appreciate friends of Liberia, like you, who have come to our assistance in our national moment of need.”

The African Union partnered with the African Development bank and regional business leaders to raise a crisis fund to help areas hit by the Ebola outbreak. Thereby starting up an appeal for increased effort to contain the epidemic.

“I want to commend the Chairperson of the African Union, Dr. Dlamini Zuma and Strive Masiyiwa, for presiding over a very successful AU meeting with the private sector to mobilize financial contributions and business solutions, to facilitate a robust African response to Ebola. I am also very proud of my colleagues in the African private sector for demonstrating that we can rise to the occasion and help fund and support the AU deployment of the healthcare workers to care for our fellow Africans, and I urge more African business to step up to the plate with more pledges,” Elemelu added.