Zenith Bank: Keeping Girls in School

through Pad-A-Queen Initiative

Omolabake Fasogbon

On a typical school day in Lagos, the sound of a bell signals lessons beginning, friendships forming and futures quietly taking shape. Yet for many adolescent girls across Nigeria, those bells sometimes ring without them. Not because they are ill, lazy or disinterested, but because they are menstruating—and have neither the sanitary products nor the confidence to manage it safely and with dignity. This quiet crisis is what Zenith Bank’s Pad-a-Queen initiative seeks to confront.

Marked to coincide with the International Day of the Girl Child, which is celebrated annually on October 11, the initiative goes beyond symbolism. It addresses a practical, deeply human challenge that continues to disrupt the education and well-being of thousands of Nigerian schoolgirls.

In doing so, it aligns squarely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals—Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3), Quality Education (SDG 4), and Gender Equality (SDG 5)—but its impact is most clearly felt in classrooms, homes and the self-esteem of young girls.

For many adolescents, menstruation arrives shrouded in silence, myths, and shame. Conversations about periods are often whispered, avoided or treated as taboo. As a result, girls are left to navigate a natural biological process with limited information and even fewer resources. Studies and school records show that some female students miss three to five school days every month simply because they lack access to sanitary pads or fear embarrassment if stains occur in class.

Over time, these repeated absences add up. Lessons are missed. Confidence erodes. Academic performance drops. In extreme cases, girls disengage completely and drop out of school. What begins as a monthly inconvenience becomes a structural barrier to education and opportunity.

PAD-A-QUEEN Fills the Gap

Designed as both an educational and empowerment programme, the initiative focuses on four core pillars: menstrual hygiene education, free distribution of sanitary pads and hygiene kits, confidence-building, and the dismantling of harmful myths and cultural taboos surrounding menstruation. But its most powerful feature is its insistence that menstruation should never be a reason a girl’s life is put on hold.

In classrooms across selected public and private secondary schools in Lagos State, girls are taught not only how to manage their menstrual health safely, but also why there is nothing shameful about it. Facilitators speak openly, answer questions honestly and create a safe space for conversations that many girls have never been allowed to have.

“I used to be scared whenever my period came during school days,” one student shared quietly at a session. “Now I know what to do, and I don’t feel ashamed anymore.”

That change—from fear to confidence—is at the heart of Pad-A-Queen. The campaign set out with ambitious but carefully structured goals: reaching 5,000 girls across 10 secondary schools, delivering more than 10 school sessions in five weeks, distributing 5,000 sanitary pad packs and hygiene kits, and training 25 female school counselors and teachers to serve as peer mentors. By empowering educators alongside students, the initiative ensures that the conversation continues long after the outreach teams leave.

Zenith Bank’s role in sustaining this effort has been both strategic and consistent. Over the years, the bank has sponsored Pad-A-Queen across multiple schools in Lagos State, recognising that corporate responsibility extends beyond balance sheets to social realities. In 2025 alone, Zenith Bank committed N5 million to support the programme.

The funds covered the provision and distribution of sanitary pads, the production of menstrual education handbooks, and the deployment of trained facilitators, counselors and logistics teams. To further reinforce the sense of inclusion and encouragement, participating girls also received Zenith Bank–branded items such as books, pens, water bottles and notebooks—small gestures that nonetheless signal to young minds that they are seen, valued and supported.

Global Support for the Girl Child

In 1995, at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, countries unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing the rights of not only women but girls. The Beijing Declaration is the first to specifically call out girls’ rights.

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.

The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.

Adolescent girls have the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life, not only during these critical formative years, but also as they mature into women. If effectively supported during the adolescent years, girls have the potential to change the world – both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and political leaders.

An investment in realising the power of adolescent girls upholds their rights today and promises a more equitable and prosperous future, one in which half of humanity is an equal partner in solving the problems of climate change, political conflict, economic growth, disease prevention, and global sustainability.

Girls are breaking boundaries and barriers posed by stereotypes and exclusion, including those directed at children with disabilities and those living in marginalised communities. As entrepreneurs, innovators and initiators of global movements, girls are creating a world that is relevant for them and future generations.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015, embody a roadmap for progress that is sustainable and leaves no one behind.

Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is integral to each of the 17 goals. Only by ensuring the rights of women and girls across all the goals will we get to justice and inclusion, economies that work for all, and sustain our shared environment now and for future generations.

Zenith Bank and Inclusion

Through a mix of community-driven initiatives, advocacy, and strategic partnerships, Zenith Bank is spotlighting the everyday barriers that many Nigerians face, which include limited access to education and healthcare, financial exclusion, and employment gaps, amongst others. Zenith Bank is also positioning inclusion as both a social responsibility and an economic imperative. Inclusion in financial products and services has been identified as an important step on the pathway to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. That is why it remains a core part of the bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda and its alignment with global development frameworks.

In addition, Zenith Bank also recognises that effective financial intermediation must reach all segments of society. Also, it recognises the critical role that financial inclusion plays in driving economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving living standards. This is not merely corporate social responsibility. It is about expanding the reach of financial intermediation to previously underserved populations.

Its commitment to inclusive banking is evident in its tailored products for different age demographics. For Nigeria’s growing youth population, the bank offers the ZECA (Zenith Children’s Account) and ASPIRE accounts, specifically designed to meet young people’s financial needs and encourage early adoption of proper banking habits.

The ZECA account introduces children to banking whilst teaching financial literacy from an early age. The ASPIRE account caters to young adults and students, providing them with access to modern banking services including mobile banking, internet banking, and debit cards at affordable rates.

Recognising that Nigeria’s older population also deserves dedicated attention, Zenith Bank developed the Timeless account package specifically for senior citizens. This account comes with preferential treatment at banking halls, dedicated relationship managers, and services tailored to meet the unique needs of older customers, ensuring that banking remains accessible and comfortable for all ages.

In reaffirming its unwavering commitment to inclusion and social responsibility, Zenith Bank joined the global community in commemorating the 2025 International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), celebrated annually on December 3. This year’s theme, “Fostering Disability-Inclusive Societies for Advancing Social Progress,” underscored the crucial need to build communities where every individual, regardless of physical or cognitive ability, can live and thrive with dignity.

Conclusion

For Zenith Bank, the Pad-A-Queen initiative reflects a broader understanding that gender equity begins with access, dignity and education. When girls are supported to stay in school consistently, the ripple effects extend beyond individual lives. Families are strengthened. Communities benefit. Economies grow. The Pad-A-Queen initiative does not pretend to solve every challenge facing the Nigerian girl child. But it tackles one of the most avoidable and most overlooked barriers to education with empathy, practicality and scale. It turns an uncomfortable topic into an empowering conversation, and a private struggle into a shared responsibility.

In a society where periods still too often mean silence and absence, Pad-A-Queen sends a clear message: menstruation should never stand between a girl and her dreams. Sometimes, keeping a girl in school starts with something as simple—and as powerful—as a pad.

Through the initiative, Zenith Bank is quietly and powerfully removing one of the most persistent barriers keeping girls out of the classroom. By combining menstrual health education with dignity, access and confidence, the initiative ensures that a girl’s future is no longer interrupted by something as natural as her period. In keeping girls in school, Zenith Bank is investing in healthier, more educated and more equal generations to come.