By Edu Abade
In furtherance of its leading role in promoting socio-economic development, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider, has announced the commencement of its Annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week.
For the past seven years, FirstBank colleagues and customers come together to participate in global annual volunteer Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness (SPARK) initiative to give back to and foster positive change within the communities where they live and work. This has seen an impact of over200,000 lives in eight countries, supported over 103 charities and achived over 121,015 volunteer hours.
The activities of the 2023 edition, which lasted from October 23 to October 28, 2023, include Tree Planting, Women Empowerment, SPARK Schools Engagement, Orphanage Homes, the less privileged engagement, and Kind Comments Day.
In partnership with Nigeria Conservation Foundation, FirstBank employees and partners will progress its planting activity which targets 50,000 trees over a three-year period from 2023.
Tree planting is one of FirstBank’s initiatives to reduce its carbon footprints and promote environmental sustainability as part of its overarching sustainability and ESG Environment, Social and Governance) strategy and in alignment with the Nigeria Conservation Foundation’s Forest Programme-Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN) designed to help increase Nigeria forest cover from its current state of between about 4-7 percent to 25 percent by 2047.
Additionally, in line with FirstBank’s commitment to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG) of women empowerment, the Bank will support cancer foundations focused on women and skills acquisition for women on 25 and 26 October 2023.
As a member of UN Women, FirstBank employs the relevant women empowerment tools to empower women internally and externally as well as partner with International Women Society to drive skills acquisition.
The Kind Comments Day is an advocacy campaign encouraging staff, customers, and other stakeholders to say kind things about one another. It focuses on inspiring and encouraging people to be deliberate about the use of kind words in relation to others.
On October 27, 2023, staff of the Bank will visit schools for the SPARK School Engagement. This activity is aimed at engaging school students through the Bank’s employees on financial literacy and inculcating and equipping young people with entrepreneurship skills set and mindset to inspire self-belief despite the increasingly daunting economic challenges while preparing them for the future of work.
Rounding off the 2023 CR&S Week will be visits to Orphanage Homes, the less privileged engagement which will hold on 28 October 2023. Orphanages, including the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs), will be visited in six geo-political zones in Nigeria as well as other SSA markets.
Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications of FirstBank, Ms. Folake Ani-Mumuney, said: “At FirstBank, we are committed to promoting the culture of kindness as it continues to engender positive relationships with our host communities. By making kindness a way of life, we build stronger communities, foster empathy, and create a positive ripple effect that extends far beyond this week.
“It’s great to see our volunteers demonstrate their continued commitment to positively impact our communities. In the spirit of kindness, I encourage everyone to join us in celebrating the FirstBank Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability week as we make kindness a part of our daily lives, interacting with one another in impactfully memorable ways.”
