The partnership between Access Bank Plc and Lagos State Government for building classrooms at Keke Nursery and Primary School will no doubt motivate teachers, develop the students and improve the learning environment, writes Obinna Chima
Education is one of the most important drivers for ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Since 1990, targeted actions by a number of countries and their development partners have helped reduce by half the number of out-of-school children around the world, a World Bank report showed.
Yet 61 million children today are not in school—and there is abundant evidence that learning outcomes in many developing countries are alarmingly low, especially among disadvantaged populations. This global learning crisis is a major impediment to expanding both individual opportunity and national development.
That was why the aim of the World Bank Group’s Education Strategy 2020 is ‘Learning for All.’ Learning for All means ensuring that all children and youth—not just the most privileged or the smartest—not only can go to school but can acquire the knowledge and skills they need to lead healthy, productive lives, secure meaningful jobs, and contribute to society.
Today, the Nigeria is faced with multiplicity of challenges ranging from high unemployment rate, poverty, lack of basic infrastructure, youth restiveness, security and political tension. In addition, the country’s dwindling revenue in the face of the significant drop in the prices of crude oil, which is its major source of revenue are threats to the desire of policy makers to support critical sectors of these economy. All these are also threat to the country achieving the global ‘Learning for All’ target.
Therefore, since banks provide linkages to all sectors of the economy, they have stepped up their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in all the key sectors of the economy.
CSR is described as an instrument, a concept or even a business model that requires companies to apply a radical change in attitude. The latter assumes a paradigm shift in business, according to which there is more to a company than return on investment and maximisation of profit.
For banks, since the introduction of the Nigeria Sustainable Banking Principles, as a pillar for CSR by the Bankers’ Committee in 2012, a lot of the financial institutions have continued to support the society.
That was why when in keeping to its obligation of giving back to the society, the Corporate Operations Division. Access Bank Plc recently donated a-six classroom block to Keke Nursery and Primary School, Agege, Lagos State, as part of the education intervention policy of the bank.
The Executive Director Operations and IT, Access Bank Plc, Ojini Olaghere, stated that the move was part of the bank’s mission towards adding value to the environment where it operates.
“Access Bank Plc has a mission among other things to add value to the environment within which it operates and our corporate social responsibility programme is one of the ways in which we have provided platform not just for the bank, but also for the employees of the bank to give back the society within which they operate.
“We completed the project over a period of six months. We have other things that we are also working on. We intend to provide educational materials for the pupils; we also intend to obtain approval from SUBEB to renovate some of the other buildings within the school premises. We believe that the wish of all parents that the children will be greater than their parents. And one of the ways in which that can happen is for the children to have access to good quality education.
“As a responsible corporate citizen, we believe in giving back to the society and education is one of the things very important for the future generations of this state. So under our corporate social responsibility programme, we have contributed in improving the quality of education in various schools across the country and this project is just one example of such,” she said.
On his part, the Head Corporate Operations Division, Access Bank, Banjo Adegbohungbe, said he believes that an institution can add value, not just by providing products and services, but also by the people in the society benefiting.
By donating the set of classrooms, he stressed that Access Bank had made meaningful contributions that improve the quality of life of the students in the school and has contributed to human capital development.
“We have made infrastructural developments that improved projects in healthcare delivery, education, primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education as well as projects in sanitation, environmental improvement and several other areas. And this project is just one example of the many things that we’re doing all over the country to give back to our society.
“This particular project was executed by contributions from members of the corporate operations group. The project was executed in partnership with the school and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) that gave us the permission to execute the project,” he added.
Boost for Financial Literacy
Adegbohungbe further explained that the project would support financial literacy as well as financial inclusion, saying that people who have the opportunity and platform for education also have the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives.
“Have greater opportunity to empowerment, then, they can be eligible for access to financial services. We believe that as we give back to the society, we are not only empowering people, we are also giving them the opportunity to improve their own lives and at the same time contribute their own quota for the development of the country and the economy as a whole as well,” he added.
He said the bank and partners involved in the project had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) towards the maintenance of the building.
“The MoU we signed with the state government runs till an initial period of three years. So, we are not just looking at the infrastructure, we are looking at mentoring for the kids. We are looking at providing books, we are looking at providing educational materials and we are looking at other areas of providing support.
“The children need an all rounded education, so we’ll contribute in other areas beyond infrastructure. And we can be sure that that will include support for the maintenance of the building,” he added.
Also, the Head Teacher, Keke Nursery and Primary School, Agege, Mrs. Bamidele V.O, while expressing appreciation to Access Bank, called on other bodies and organisations of like minds to complement the effort of the bank in ensuring that other dilapidated buildings in the school are rehabilitated.
The Director, Special Duties, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, Mrs. Habibat Ibironke Adaramosun, welcomed the support by the bank, saying government alone cannot provide the infrastructure required for the development of the state,
“The state government is trying, but there are so many schools we have. We have about 1,007 primary schools. And for the intervention to go round, it needs a lot of commitment from the part of the government. That’s why there was an initiative of ‘support our schools’ which was introduced some years ago by the then deputy governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Sarah Olabisi.
"And since the intervention, many corporate organisations have been assisting the government with the schools. So, this is a beautiful edifice. We promise that the students and staff of this school would make very good use of this building so that more interventions will come," she added
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