Raheem Akingbolu
Guinness Nigeria Plc, through its DrinkiQ initiative is collaborating with the Ministry of Youths and Sports to launch a quiz version for youths between the ages of 18-35 years.
DrinkiQ, an initiative of Diageo, the parent global company of Guinness Nigeria, is an e-learning platform that provides fact and information on alcohol thereby allowing consumers make informed choices around alcohol.
The company recently introduced the quiz version of DrinkiQ to take the drink responsibly campaign to the youth via the Nigeria Online Youth Assembly (NOYA) platform. This is part of the Ministry’s efforts to empower the Nigerian youth by disseminating relevant and timely information on self-development, career growth, training, job and employment placement opportunities via a unified platform.
Nigeria Online Youth Assembly (NOYA) is an aggregator site established as an engagement portal with the youth population in Nigeria powered by the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports (FMOY).
According to Guinness Nigeria, the DRINKiQ quiz version aims to test the knowledge of the youth on how much they know about alcohol while educating them on responsible drinking, facts, causes, and consequences surrounding under-age drinking.
Guinness Nigeria, the only total beverage alcohol company in Nigeria, continues to reiterate the importance of the company’s part in creating a positive role for alcohol in the society through its partnerships and programmes that reduce harmful drinking habits.
Managing Director, Baker Magunda noted this while speaking on the partnerhip, adding that the collaboration is in line with efforts aimed at acknowledging the need for responsible drinking.
“We have always led the industry in promoting responsible drinking while working with others on related initiatives”, Baker said.
Sahara Group Launches SDGs’ Impact Fund
Sahara Foundation, the corporate citizenship vehicle of energy conglomerate, Sahara Group, has launched the Sahara Impact Fund (SIF) and the Governance Unusual Programme to facilitate the generation of ideas and solutions towards increasing access to clean energy, mobilizing partnerships to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and inspiring a good governance paradigm shift.
Sahara Foundation would drive the programme using the Sahara extrapreneurship model with an underlying ethos of “creating enabling environment for entrepreneurs”.
The fund’s capacity is set at over $100,000 with opportunity for incremental access by beneficiaries based on impact, reach and sustainability matrices targeted at supporting young social entrepreneurs in Africa with seed funding as well as providing access to mentoring from Sahara Group and other private sector partners, to scale up clean energy and sustainable environment innovations.
The Programme is a strategic partnership involving Sahara Foundation, Ford Foundation, LEAP Africa and Impact Investors Foundation leveraging on strengths of the various partners.
Sahara Foundation has implemented various projects across its locations in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, impacting the lives of over 2,000,000 beneficiaries, with youth accounting for over 50% of the beneficiaries.
According to the Director, Governance and Sustainability, Sahara Group, Pearl Uzokwe, the Sahara Impact Fund and Governance Unusual programme would reinforce ongoing conversations on boosting entrepreneurial capacity and how individual responsibility can inspire a paradigm shift that will culminate in the “whole” gravitating towards “doing the right thing” – without equivocation. Sahara Group is delighted to promote a robust movement for self-governance – one that challenges everyone to be the measure for “doing the right thing” against all odds.”
Applications for the SIF opened September 29th 2020 and will run till October 15th, 2020.
The Fellowship is a leadership quest that starts from changing people’s mindset and birthing a new creed that ultimately stamps out the dominance of “business as usual” standards across the globe. The design of the project requires Fellows of the Impact Fund to participate in the Governance Unusual Programme with exposure to leadership training for social impact entrepreneurs targeting maximum impact and scalability.
Country Director, Ford Foundation, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma said the innovative programme comes at a moment when the world needs a critical vehicle that can support young people to creatively connect good ideas with good leadership examples. “I hope that the programme will inspire the beneficiaries to take individual responsibility towards promoting sustainable development in their various areas of interest,” he added.
According to Founder LEAP Africa, Ndidi Nwuneli, “LEAP is delighted to serve as a technical partner for this important initiative because of its focus on supporting young Africans working to provide clean and affordable energy solutions and to promote a sustainable environment through the Social Innovators Programme and Awards. We strongly believe that this partnership will not only promote the achievement of the SDGs but also propel greater innovation across Africa.”
