- Marks Global Community Day
Citi Nigeria has unveiled upgraded the library at Government Senior College Victoria Island. Over the next five years, Citi Nigeria said it will through the Lagos State Project 350 initiative, help build and sustain the infrastructure that will help improve the academic performance of students within the school.
The Ministry of education is looking to increase access to knowledge for Lagosians by getting organisations within the private sector to adopt a library with a view to upgrading and converting it to an e-Library. This, it said, will help boost the learning experience of the students and level the playing field for public school students.
Speaking on the initiative, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh said: “This administration, under the leadership of Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode recognises the importance of collaborating with the private sector to achieve our goals of increasing access to knowledge and improving the standard of education across the State.”
Citi was the first private sector partner to unveil its library and donated computers, a solar-panel inverter and furniture. Citi Nigeria CEO, Mr. Akin Dawodu during his speech explained: “Project 350, is an initiative that will positively impact the lives of the youth of the state in a sustained manner. It also demonstrates the state government’s commitment to ensuring the future economic competitiveness of Lagos by thoughtfully engaging its youth. It also provides Citi with an opportunity to make a positive impact on society in a focused and sustained manner, and to re-affirm Citi’s commitment to enabling progress in the community where we do business.”
The Unveiling of the upgraded library coincided with Citi Global Community Day (GCD), a decade long tradition in Citi and a wonderful opportunity for Citi employees, and their friends and family to come together to help improve the communities where we live and work. This year, Citi Nigeria’s community partners included: IHS Towers, the market leading tower company in Nigeria, and the largest mobile telecommunications infrastructure provider in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. IHS, a Citi client, donated a 15KVA generator to the school and IHS employees also joined the volunteer effort.
Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) is a non-profit economic education organisation that inspires and educate young people to become conscientious business leaders. JAN helped put a Financial Literacy Presentation that also includes a panel discussion. Panellists were Tayo Oviosu Founder/CEO Paga and an expert in the areas of technology, finance, mobile money and investment. Tayo in history is referred to as the Mobile Money pioneer in Nigeria. The other panellist was Helen Atohenegbe Head of Business 2 Strategy Channelle Micro-Finance Bank. Chanelle Microfinance Bank Limited is duly registered and licensed by the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) as a unit microfinance bank.
Bloomberg, the leading business and financial information and news provider, has a long-standing, global relationship with Citi. Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) Media Fellows, and delegates and alumni from the BMIA financial journalism training program in Lagos participated in various activities. BMIA is a multi-year program to build capacity for business and financial journalism, convene international leaders and improve access to information in Africa to increase transparency.
Nigerian Red Cross Society is a Non-Governmental Humanitarian Agency (NGHA), the only one in that category in every country in the world. It is not an NGO as is erroneously believed. They will be providing an ambulance for GCD this year.
IHS Co-founder and Interim IHS Nigeria CEO Mohamad Darwish said: “This is a fantastic initiative which we’re thrilled to support along with the Citi team. IHS is committed to the local communities in which we operate, promoting education and driving various sustainable development initiatives. The new generator will enable students to have access to a consistent power supply, utilise computers on a regular basis and learn late into the afternoon. Our approach to Corporate Social Responsibility underpins the way in which we do business and our programmes focus on people, education, business ethics and the environment, for the betterment of our communities and employees.”
Across the world, Citi volunteers lead hundreds of community projects. The “e3 – educate, empower, engage” campaign is bringing together 4,000 Citi volunteers across 23 countries in the Middle East and Africa, to empower youth through education and training. From a school supply collection in the UAE to an entrepreneurship training project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, activities across Middle East and Africa aim to improve the lives of more than 4,000 children.
