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The trajectory of Junior Achievement Nigeria reaching over one million youths is one that has embraced diverse support of individuals, groups, and organisations. The continuous tenacity applied to impacting the lives of youths especially in a time where the pandemic brought many to economic recession is one that can best be described as apt. Our programs are helping young people recover from loss, stay updated and learn in-demand skills that could help them become more attractive to the labour market. The support of Board members such as First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Sigma Pensions, Schlumberger, Citi, Channels Television, Agile Communications, Deloitte, Aliko Dangote Foundation, and partner organizations such as Union Bank, Google, ACT Foundation, Facebook, Slum2school gave life to these programs.
JA Nigeria kicked off the year with a financial literacy program themed ‘Break Free’ – #JAPA. ‘Break free’ was tailored toward impacting the lives of young professionals on matters regarding money management. Burdened with the fact that COVID-19 affected the finances of many, we organised a program aimed at helping young people gain financial freedom. With the support of Sigma Pensions, ‘Break free’ gave insight on basic finance understanding finance concepts such as saving, pension, and investments, and strategies to live a debt-free life.
As you know, one of JA’s aims is to build a generation of digitally inclined youths. To make this happen, youths need to learn diverse strategies on how to stay safe online. Due to the pandemic, more young people embraced online activity and this led to the implementation of the Safe Online Spotlight Series with Facebook. Although Safe Online has since been implemented, the COVID-19 outbreak made the implementation even more necessary. This program seeks to help young minds stay aware of online bullies, fraud, and other internet-like dangers that could pose a threat to them while surfing the Internet. JA Nigeria is glad to have Facebook support this program that helps protect young people from online dangers.
In the light of impact and choosing to challenge diverse societal abnormalities that could serve as barriers to the successes of women, JA Nigeria celebrated International Women’s Day. An offshoot of marking the IWD 2021 was the weekly ‘Girls4Tech’ program sponsored by Mastercard. This program was designed to inspire female teenagers between the ages of 8-14 as taking STEM-related courses could encourage more girls to consider a career in STEM. Did you know that in Nigeria, only 20% of girls are enrolled in STEM-related courses? This reveals the urgency for programs like ‘Girls for Tech.’ Recall, “An equal world is an enabled world.”
Our GoogleIT Support program is on the run! Organisations are counting on young people who can think outside the box and we delight in building young people to not only think creatively but to see how their potentials can cause a global impact. This program is a 4-6 month program that aims to equip young graduates and ‘out of school’ youths with 21st century professional IT skills needed for the job market. At Junior Achievement Nigeria, we are intentional about leaving no stone unturned as regards matters that can contribute to a thriving economic environment for youths. According to a statement by Adebowale Akinbobola, one of the beneficiaries of the JA Nigeria Google IT support program, he stated; “I am looking forward to the other modules and I appreciate JA Nigeria for this opportunity. I say cheers to greater impact from JA Nigeria and also for myself”.
In 2020, JA Nigeria started the #NoStudentLeftBehind campaign to support young people in developing skills that they need to be economically independent even in trying times. We look forward to more donations; this would accelerate our goals towards ensuring that there are No Students Left Behind.
In another development, JA Nigeria implemented its Financial Literacy Day program as part of the celebration for Global Money Week. Global Money Week is a worldwide celebration held in March to empower the next generation to be confident and money-savvy global citizens. The event which is in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria was held simultaneously in select schools across the country in efforts to create a financially literate generation. Similarly, through a partnership with Prudence Foundation. Primary school students were exposed to the basics of money management through the implementation of the ‘ChaChing’ program. ChaChing uses the ‘Earn. Save. Spend. Donate.’ mantra to teach these students life-long learning about financial management.
Furthermore, in line with JA Nigeria’s mission of providing business and economic education for young people, a recycling program titled ‘Every Can Counts’ will be implemented with the support of Novelis/GZI. ‘Every Can Counts’ is an educational program for primary and secondary school students, where they will be taught and motivated to know about the meaning and value of aluminum recycling, the importance of putting recycling into practice, and how this can help them become entrepreneurs who care about a sustainable future.
JA Nigeria, however, solicits support from well-meaning Nigerians, philanthropists, and corporate organisations to partner with us to accelerate our impact by helping us raise a generation of conscientious business leaders leading a vibrant economy and ultimately help young people to own their economic future.
Why we continue to produce world-class products –Adegunwa, MD, Rite Foods
Rite Foods Limited, a truly world-class and proudly Nigerian food and beverage company has stated that it will continue to produce world-class products for the benefits of its consumers, through the possibility of the state-of-the-art infrastructure and up-to-the-minute technology deployed in its production factory.
This was the submission of the Company’s Managing Director, Mr. Seleem Adegunwa, at the recent Rite Foods Brand Academy organised for content drivers at its first-rate factory at Ososa, Ogun State, where hesaid the company which started with a humble beginning has set the pace for others in the industry through unique brands that are proven to be unrivalled by consumers.
He said the rapid success of the indigenous company can be attributed to its quality consciousness and technological advancement it has attained.
Adegunwa affirmed that the company’s exceptional brands are produced with machineries that are the best from across the world, thus ensuring the most hygienic and global standardit has maintained since inception.
On a tour of the infrastructure, the content drivers were inundated with the Nigerianess and “I CAN, I AM” mantra of Rite Foods.
They were also amazed with the up-to-date technology installed in the factory, which are automated with little or no – human interference, with artificial intelligence at all phases of the production processes, thereby ensuring the delivering of quality products at optimum capacity.
The Rite Foods MD explained that the factorygenerates its own source of electricity via the largest solar plant in West Africa, alongside its usage of gas and diesel induced plant connected to the National Grid that facilitates seamless, uninterrupted power supply to the highly sensitive, sophisticated technology infrastructure.
According to him,the global approach was induced to enable the company deliver unparalleled brands to meet consumers expectation, which according to market survey, has been surpassed, with the largest market share in the sausage and beverage sector of the Nigerian economy.
Established in 2007, Rite Foods Limited is a subsidiary of Ess-Ay Holdings.
Its sausage brands have been the mark of excellence for the industry with the Rite Spicy, Bigi Beef and Rite Sausages.
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On the company’s stables are the 12 leading Bigi soft drink variants which include the Bigi Cola, Bigi Orange, Bigi Apple, Bigi Bitter Lemon, Bigi Soda Water, Bigi Lemon & Lime, Bigi Tropical, Bigi Chapman, Bigi Tamarind, Bigi Cherry Cola, Bigi Ginger Lemon, and the Bigi Ginger Ale.
Its Bigi Premium Table Water, which is produced with global best practices in purification, offers quality, freshness, confidence and reliability.
Rite Foods’ inventiveness has earned high recognition in the energy drinks market with the first ever packaged polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle brands for the Fearless Red Berry and Fearless Classic.
The effort of Rite Foods in setting up such superlative factories was highly commended by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, when he visited the place. He said “This is a testament to the true Nigerian spirit of hard work, bold entrepreneurship and commitment to world class standard.”
The leading company has also made inroad into the entertainment industry with the sponsorship of the Prophetess movie premiere which recently debuts in Oyo and Lagos States, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.
Nigerian Idol, a platform for budding and talented singers to express themselves is also been sponsored by this emerging, friendly conglomerate, which also organised a prototype of the show for content drivers in Lagos recently, christened Bigi Media Idol.
In its environmental preservation programme, the organisation recently embarked on a clean-up of the Alpha beach in Lagos, and immensely supported the less privileged in one of the communities in the state with consumable household items, as part of its CSR programme.
APCON inaugurates committees, appoints Owodunni first female chairperson of ASP
The Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON) has inaugurated three committees at an event in the Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Ikeja. The committees were: the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), Advertising Code Review Committee, and Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISoP) committee.
While inaugurating the committees, the registrar/chief executive of APCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, charged the committees to develop appropriate strategies as well as deploy “out-of-the-box” ideas/frameworks that will ensure that the council fundamentally improves its regulatory mandates and service delivery.
“I am convinced that the teams we have selected here today will approach this assignment with all sense of responsibility and commitment, and serve as enablers for the achievement of the council’s success. I, therefore, charge all heads of the committees to ensure that they leave no stone unturned in carrying out their respective assignments.”
The APCON boss explained that in executing the assignment, the committees were expected to deliver well on their various tasks and within scheduled time as according to him, time was of the essence.
He emphasized that the task before the committees include identifying peculiar sectoral challenges, suggest immediate and long term implementation policies, recommend action plans that will galvanize the industry and that will improve service delivery and benefit stakeholders.
The Code Review Committee and AISoP were expected to conclude their tasks within three months. He called on the entire industry to put all hands on deck to make the advertising industry an enviable entity.
Still on strategizing and realigning its operations, the council announced Mrs. Omowunmi Owodunni as the new chairperson of the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP), the statutory panel charged with ensuring that advertisements conform to the prevailing laws of the Federation as well as the code of advertising ethics of the advertising profession.
Owodunni is the first female to head the ASP. She succeeds Mr. Charles Abraham who had been chairman since 2015 and whose tenure witnessed remarkable achievements/developmental strides.
Speaking on the appointment, the Registrar/Chief Executive of ÀPCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo said that the approval is a mark of confidence on the Council by the Government and at the same time it demonstrates the Council’s obligation to change the course of history.
“We are delighted to variegate and to be change makers. Women participation and leadership in the industry must be promoted and fostered so as to bring new perspectives to achieve further progress.
