By Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
Odunayo Sanya, is the executive secretary, MTN Foundation. Speaking at the Media Parley of this year’s MTN Foundation Y’ellopreneur launch in Lagos, she spoke about the Foundation many projects and the impact made over the years. Excerpts:
About MTN Foundation
The MTN Foundation is MTN’s corporate social investment vehicle. We were founded in 2004 and we commenced operations in 2005. The real reason why MTN exists is because our core belief is that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life. And when we talk about you the benefits of modern connected life a lot of people restrict us to our voice and data that we sell. But the connectedness that we are talking about is deeper than the products that we sell. It’s about the fact that we see ourselves in all the markets that we exist in as an enabler of possibilities for other people. And so, that’s why we believe that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life regardless of where you are and that is the thrust the core for establishing the Foundation. Another belief that we hold dear is that, you know, we’re only as good as a business as the communities that we operate in. And so for us, it’s very important to give back to the community and not just throw back or give back but give back meaningfully to the communities that we serve. And that’s the whole essence of the MTN Foundation. One interesting thing about the MTN Foundation which is different from a lot of CSR or CSI organizations is that we have a full governance system. We have a board of directors, different from MTN and so, for us governance is not negotiable. And you know, we have the subcommittees of the board and the board is overlooking and overseeing the affairs of the Foundation.
What have we done so far?
The causes we support have also evolved over time. But, there are two things that have not changed; everything that we do is aligned with the sustainable development goals that’s one, because for us, we see ourselves as a strong contributor to the socio economic development of Nigeria and the sustainability of Nigeria as a nation. And so, everything we do aligns with the SDGs and the national priorities. So at every point in time, regardless of the government that is in power, or that we do also aligns with national priorities such that we’re moving, we’re contributing to moving the country forward, that is some of the things that we have done. We are very keen and very intentional about youth empowerment. I don’t think it needs a lot of explanation. Like I keep saying, Africa is the youngest continent on Earth today. Nigeria is the youngest country in Africa, and I dare say the world in terms of demography. And so for us, we concentrate on youth development.
Health is a big area that we continue to push at the frontiers in whether through contributing to research, or actually, you know, equipping and upgrading the physical facilities that are available to Nigerians to get health care from. So for our portfolios, we have two major portfolios, everything condensed into two one is the youth development portfolio and one is the national priority portfolio. And under the national priority, we have health, we have empowerment or capacity building as we like to be referred. So till date, we have upgraded 117 Primary Healthcare centers across the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT. From inception to date, we’ve been able to of course, together do all of this things through our partners, our customers, and the reason why I mentioned the customers at this point is just to say that the Foundation is solely funded by MTN Nigeria by up to 1% of MTN Nigeria’s profit after tax and unwavering commitment that MTN has stayed tuned to. The people who enable us to do that really is our customers because for every recharge card that is bought for every call that is made for every website visited, the customer is creating or contributing the 1% that MTN Foundation uses to improve our communities. From inception to date, we’ve installed about 150 boreholes of which few years ago, we felt it was important to begin to do things in a sustainable manner considering the environment and I think about 65 of those boreholes are solar powered. Till date, we have trained about 500 female entrepreneurs and that was in the first phase. We had 182 of them pitch for equipment loans in January of this year and 101 of them qualify for the loans even though we were looking for a 150, I must say.
The Y’ellow doctor Medical Outreach, which we do, taking out health care to the underserved, leveraging customized trucks that are owned by MTN Foundation. In this current phase that closed out in April, we were able to touch about 52,000 Nigerians across the entire breadth of Nigeria and this includes, consultation, treatment prescription and also to certain tests within those communities. We reached 1089 communities, I must tell you very remote communities in some instances we have to drive the truck, park the truck and jump on the boat to get medical care into certain communities. Under the youth development we have a scholarship scheme and we emphasize on STEM, Science Technology, Engineering and Maths. There’s a reason a lot of people ask, why do we do this? We believe that as a nation we have a lot of catch up to do technologically, and so we believe strongly as has been shown in other clients that science and technology can help us bridge that gap. So, every year we give scholarships to young Nigerians who study STEM in public universities. Till date we have awarded 12,736 scholarships to 4590 people and I’ll explain that math because you expect to see 12,736 people. But for us at MTN Foundation, everything we do is about excellence. So, it is a scholarship of excellence you must have proven yourself to get the scholarship now once you get the scholarship. It is available to you as long as you maintain a CGPA of 3.5 for the next three years until you leave school so you have one person benefited twice, three times. But we believe that the way you can keep our youth, you know on the path of excellence. But, the moment that the CGPA drops, then you’re out of the scheme but you can reapply again. Still under the scholarship scheme, we are very inclusive organization. For us, diversity and inclusion is key. And so, we have a scholarship scheme for the blind. And I’m sure that we pioneered this, and I think we are the only one still doing this for the blind in universities. And so, every year in addition to the STEM, we also give scholarships to blind Nigerians to go public universities and they are really doing well. From inception to date, we have set up 102 ICT labs in public secondary schools across Nigeria, and I’m particularly interested this, last year alone, were able to set up 40. 2020/2021 are knocked out of the calendar because of Covid. Interestingly, our setup is not just about giving them the devices, what we do is that we fix the physical structure of their labs. In this phase we deployed about 585 devices and gave them furniture for the lab, and alternative power because we know power is a big issue. So, we give them alternative power in form of solar and batteries. We also work on science laboratory, we have upgraded at least 82 science labs in 26 schools across Nigeria.
Other projects
We recognize that technology is not the only path that people take and so, we also lean towards the art. We partner with the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON), they are accredited to give a two year globally accredited diploma in music. So every year, MTN Foundation funds young Nigerians to go through the MUSON School of Music, and I must say they’re all doing so well that we have moved about 490 students thereabout and we’re still in partnership with them. So, those are some of the things that we have done at the MTN Foundation and all of them are in alignment with the SDGs.
MTN ambition 2025
We believe that we are an enabler. We believe we have a role as a corporate organization within the society. And that role is the role of an enabler. We believe that everyone deserves the benefits of modern connected life. But our strategic intent is actually to lead digital solutions for Africa’s progress. And so we’ve been able to do that through our platforms and this is speaking to MTN generally our platforms connectivity, creating shared value, which is where the foundation you know, sits on our ESG strategy and also accelerate portfolio transformation.
Y’ellopreneur initiative
At the Foundation we got into some desk research, and we found that there was a gap when it came to women being able to manage and own their own businesses. In 2021, only 2% of venture capitalists funds globally, went to women led businesses or women founded businesses. I was at a conference Thursday and Friday last week, and we were talking about funding for female businesses, a lady stood up and said maybe we should stop all these things and just put men on every woman’s board because it seems when people see men in the room, they tend to trust them. I don’t know why but that’s not where I’m headed to. Personally, my team and I have stories of people who had collected grants over and over again, but they don’t look like the money that has passed through their hands. And so we realized there was a gap. Or it dawned on us again, because it’s an open secret that the gap is there that we needed to build the capacity of women apart from the fact that yes, this strongly contributes to SDG five, we talked about gender equality and all of that. But it was now important to bridge that huge gap. So for us, the Y’ellopreneur is really first about capacity building. And then yes, you build capacity and then what do you do next? And that’s where we now iced it like a cake with the partnership with a Bank of Industry even though they are fully funded and EDC. EDC is our knowledge partners who will train the women and then the Bank of Industry will administer for us the funds that MTN Foundation was given. Last year, we concluded training which 453 women were able to pull through. For some reasons like maternity and issues with their children some were not able to pull through. But, I recall in this same place when we unveiled the Y’ellopreneur, a few of the women ask if it was possible to open up even if just the training for others who had applied because even though they hadn’t finished the training, they were already seeing changes because they were applying what they were learning and they were seeing the changes in their business. And so, we commenced the conversations, and now we have the EDC and MasterCard organizations on board. And so, for us, we are fulfilling today a pledge that we made in the same hall when we unveiled the Y’ellopreneur. We went back into the same community and our target is to train 20,000 women and good enough because in this space, you know, MTN were not funding in terms of the loans. And by the way, we decided that we will give loans or not grants. And every time people ask me, Why are you doing loans or not grants and I said because I’ve seen too many people who have gotten grants and there was there was no impact. And so, when you get a grant here and there. It shuts the door for a few other entrepreneurs. So, we decided to go the way of loans for the main Y’ellopreneur and some people in their minds are wandering if MTN is making money from this. The interest rate is 2% and it’s 2% flat. So, when the women pay down on the loan, they get 25% of it as a grant. So, it’s very well thought through because we want to keep the door open for many other women to be able to pass through.
It has been wonderful partnering with EDC and the MasterCard Foundation. And I know that there are many there are a few other programs like this, but I dare say that if we keep at it, maintain the levels of excellence that we have set, then we can see many more women because one good thing about the four weeks of training, is that you must have a business plan. One of the greatest things that have eluded women is sitting down you know nothing is like is a monster. How do I come up with a business plan? So, a lot of women don’t know how to do this, but by the time you’re done with the four weeks of training, they have a business plan. And not just a business plan that is good enough for MTN alone, but a standard, global business plan that is bankable. You can take it to the bank and get you know, capital to actualize their dreams.