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Mr. Herbert Wigwe, group managing director, Access Bank Plc., recently reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to the educational development of children in Nigeria, highlighting it as one of the most important tools in sustaining the future of the country.
Wigwe said this while addressing attendees at the Access Bank/UNICEF Charity Shield Polo Tournament, at the Guards Polo Club, United Kingdom.
Nigeria currently holds the unenviable position of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. A problem that Wigwe said Access Bank, in collaboration with UNICEF, aims to solve using funds raised through the high-profile polo tournament.
“The number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is very worrisome, and if not tackled adequately does not bode well for the future of Nigeria. Access Bank identified this problem over 10 years ago and through the polo tournament has made considerable strides in improving the educational system in Nigeria. We will not relent in our efforts to ensure that Nigerian children are given the requisite educational foundation to succeed,” Wigwe said.
“We know the challenge before us is great, but we will surmount it through collaboration with relevant international, government and private stakeholders. We will continue to give, because our children are our tomorrow.
“So far, we have been able to raise over N1 billion and every kobo will be invested in providing educational infrastructure, starting one northern state at a time because that is where we find the highest number of out-of-school and displaced children,” he said.
Wigwe went further to explain that government’s buy-in was key to the achievement of the financial institution’s set goals, thanking the Kaduna State government for its support in the implementation of its projects.
Access Bank is already making a telling impact through its charitable projects, recently completing the refurbishment of a 12,000-capacity school and is set to complete another that will cater for an additional 1,200 students at the end of July. These efforts have not gone unnoticed, as the Kaduna State government has committed to replicating every project that the bank will implement in the state.
The Charity Polo Tournament was a huge success with several lzocal and international dignitaries in attendance including the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, and British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing CB, among others.
Energy360 Africa unveils cutting-edge fuel management service
Energy360 Africa, a data analytics and technology solutions company pioneering technologies for the downstream oil and gas sector, recently unveiled a portfolio of innovative fuel management systems that helps small, medium and large businesses optimise fuel consumption, thereby boosting revenue and maximising profit.
The offerings unveiled included a revolutionary product, Smart Eye, an automatic tank gauging system that can be utilised by fuel stations, tank farms, hospitals, schools and any organisation with wet stock. Smart Eye is a system that has been designed to read tank movements remotely in real-time by providing a tank gauging system that monitors stock levels. This will provide a high level of comfort to all businesses with fuel storage tanks of any capacity.
Another offering is the Station Manager, which is an innovative cloud-based software designed to optimise fuel station operations, margins and ensure proper controls on the forecourt. E360 Station Manager was designed to centralise data across multiple fuel stations, allowing for greater insights into stock levels, pump activity, pricing, margin management, historic sales trends, expenses and customer behaviours. E360 also offers station analytics, which caters to businesses that run multiple stations, delivers real-time data from their network of stations at any time and location.
Also unveiled was E360 Velox, a technology product, which offers businesses flexibility and improved controls over fuel management through access to real-time data from fuel points. An additional feature of E360 Velox is that it features a secure payment integration to allow businesses receive payments seamlessly (especially from their B2B customers).
Speaking on the bouquet of service, CEO of Energy360 Africa, Abayomi Elebute, declared that the goal was to enable businesses make informed decisions through big data, sales, stock, payments and other operational information aggregated to provide holistic and granular visibility of their stations.
He added that Energy360 Africa came up with the products to support the oil and gas downstream sector to improve controls around fuelling and reduce losses by at least 60 per cent.
Jumia ends anniversary celebration with aid, visits to Red Cross orphanage, LASTMA
One of the leading e-commerce platforms, Jumia Nigeria, brought its anniversary celebration to an end by donating home care products and reading materials to the Nigerian Red Cross Orphanage Home, located at Makoko, Yaba. The company also donated more than 300 protective wear and safety items to the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA).
In addition to the donation, the company volunteered some of its staff to support LASTMA officers in managing traffic in Ikeja and its environs. The volunteers were trained by the agency at the Jumia warehouse in Ikeja a day before they were dispatched to the field.
Jumia’s public relations and communications manager, Mr. Olukayode Kolawole, said the donations provided an opportunity for the company’s staff to interact with the children and appreciate the good work that the social workers and staff of Red Cross were doing in caring for them.
“The gesture is in line with Jumia’s mission of improving the quality of life in Nigeria,” he said.
The head of administration at the Makoko Red Cross Orphanage Home, Mrs. Gloria Chiukwe, identified inadequate funding and dearth of volunteers as some of the challenges the organisation encountered daily to keep the home running.
She said, “Jumia’s contribution will meet some of these needs. We are also urging other individuals and organisations to volunteer their time and resources in supporting orphanage homes in the country.”
Similarly, the general manager of LASTMA, Mr. Musa Maroof Olawale, commended Jumia’s management for building its seventh anniversary celebration around its host communities, especially in the areas of intervention, outreaches and corporate social investment. He reiterated the agency’s commitment to its mandate, which is to effectively manage traffic in the country’s commercial hub.
Country manager for Jumia Services, the logistics arm of Jumia, Miss Tolulope George-Yanwah, said the impact of the agency’s work continues to reflect on the logistics operations of the company, as they contributed to timely delivery of packages from sellers to consumers through their efficient management of traffic in Lagos.
Promasidor, Ekiti seal contract on Ikun dairy farm
Promasidor Nigeria Limited has signed a partnership agreement with the Ekiti State government to drive its backward integration initiative aimed at creating local sources of raw materials for its dairy products through the state-owned Ikun Dairy Farm.
The pact was sealed on behalf of the partners by Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State governor, and Anders Einarsson, managing director of Promasidor Nigeria Limited, in Abuja.
The agreement will enable Promasidor utilise the potential of Ikun Dairy Farm in the making of milk and other products of nutritional value, to help enhance human growth.
Commenting on the agreement, Fayemi stated that Ekiti State was delighted to collaborate with a major player in the fast-moving consumer goods sector that is committed to the wellbeing of consumers through its array of quality products.
The governor affirmed that the partnership would enhance the backward integration initiative of Promasidor, in compliance with Federal Government’s directives that companies should seek local sources of raw materials, thus ensuring local content development.
Fayemi noted that Ikun Dairy Farm, established in 1980 with hundreds of fattened cows, could serve as a source of milk supply to produce evaporated milk and other nutritional products, create more employment opportunities and increase nutritional products.
The managing director of Promasidor said Ikun Dairy Farm would in no small measure provide opportunities to enhance local milk production, an exciting opportunity for the company.
He affirmed that local sourcing of milk was paramount for quality products such as Cowbell Milk, Loya Milk, Cowbell Chocolate, Miksi and others, to reduce dependence on foreign raw materials.
The Promasidor boss corroborated Fayemi’s view that the partnership would also lead to further employment.
Recall that the Ikun Diary facility, which was established at Ikun Ekiti in the Moba Local Government Area of Ekiti State during President Shehu Shagari in the 1980s, has remained in terrible state and abandoned by successive governments.
With an astute investor such as Promasidor, industry watchers think the project is most likely to get a new lease of life.
