By Amaechi Ogbonna
Lady Adaora Umeoji, Deputy Managing Director at Zenith Bank Plc, stands out as an amazon of the banking profession whom many aspiring youths look up to for mentorship and guidance.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Jos, a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a first-class honours in Law from Baze University, Abuja, among other academic qualifications.
Apart from banking, Lady Adaora has another passion. She devotes a better part of your life to serving humanity, deploying her resources and time to community service and care for the less privileged.
Over the years, she has dedicated yourself to several humanitarian programmes, lifting poor individuals and putting smiles on their faces.
Indeed, her footprints in philanthropy is etched on the sand of the Catholic Church, where she has made substantial contributions to charitable projects.
In 2022, she solely built and donated a church building to the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja in Dobi community, in memory of your late mother, Chief Lady Ngozi Umeoji (Mater Profunditas). She also adopted Immaculate Conception Parish, Dobi as her second parish. These gestures earned her the name “Mama Dobi.”
Lady Adaora has an Adorable Christmas Initiative, which has been a source of succour for indigent children and disadvantaged individuals for nearly two decades. In the programme, she hosts over 5,000 indigent children during the Yuletide, providing them with back-to-school academic materials and treating them to a festive celebration.
Her Pink Breathe Cancer Foundation supports individuals battling cancer by offering medical and relief materials. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the country also benefit from the humanitarian activities of the foundation, receiving relief materials regularly.
This famous banker has provided and continues to provide scholarships to numerous deserving children, giving them the opportunity to pursue education in Nigeria and abroad.
Alongside her siblings, she has used the late Hon. Andy and Chief Lady Ngozi Umeoji Foundation to undertake various charitable and humanitarian activities, including scholarships for intelligent and indigent students, support for young entrepreneurs, skill acquisition training, and relief materials for widows, the elderly, and those in need.
For her uncommon philanthropy, she not only received a commendation from Pope Francis in 2020 but also honoured with a distinguished PAPAL DAME OF SAINT SYLVESTER THE POPE.
Lady Adaora Umeoji is passionate about making life better for the needy and uplifting the society through charity works. It is for this reason that she is being celebrated as The Sun Humanitarian Service Icon Award, 2023.