Kaduna Schools Intervention: UNICEF Receives #10 Million Donation from Access Bank
By Alex Uangbaoje, Kaduna
As part of it’s sustainability plans at ensuring that the partnership between it, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Fifth Chucker Polo is boosted in other to improve the livelihood of children and make them more comfortable, Access Bank, Nigeria Plc has presented a check of #10 million intervention fund to UNICEF.
Access Bank which has been consistent with the donation in the partnership which begun in 2006, has donated #40 million yearly in the last four years, and also donated #5 million each year between 2006 and 2014, which has amounted to #80 million in total.
The #10 million donation was handed over to Manuel Rosini UNICEF’s Lagos Chief Field Officer, by Manager Director, Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe at the end of the Access Bank, UNICEF and Fifth Chucker Polo Charity Shield tournament in Kaduna.
The team had earlier in the day visited Local Government Primary School (LEA) Maraban, one of the benefiting school to access the level of its achievements of their interventions in the school.
Speaking to journalists at the premises of the school, Access Bank MD, said the partnership has not just transformed facilities in the schools, but it has reshaped the lives of the pupils by giving them a new lease of life.
“One of the greatest things we did with the UNICEF, Access Bank, Fifth Chucker partnership is exactly what we are seeing here today, this school now have about 12,500 pupils, but when we started it was about 500 pupils, and we can’t stop because these children reflects the future of our country.
“Their circumstance today will determine where they will be tomorrow, the greatest gift God has given us is to support children like this, we can’t quantify how much we are spending on them, we just have to keep giving and if you look at all of them they so different.” Mr Wigwe added.
On his part, UNICEF Chief, Manuel Rosini commended Access Bank and Fifth Chucker for the interventions for children and believing in UNICEF for the implementation of the projects.
According to him, “50% of all of the world’s out of school children are in Nigeria, so initiative like this is good, if Nigeria can make it, everyone else can make it, that is why it is super important.”
Also speaking, Proprietor, Fifth Chucker Polo, Adamu Atta, revealed that the idea of the school projects is to deepen nutrition and support the less privileged children in the State.
“We started this school project as pilot programme some years back and we now have other projects around the state that are of both health, nutrition and education.
“We can not measure the impact of what we have achieved, Access Bank has spent hundreds of millions in developing this school and promoting it as part of it’s contribution with all our partners and we have sustained it for over a period of ten years, it is not a kind of project you see sometimes, after doing it for a year or two, you abandon it, we have been doing this for over ten years.
“And my joy today is that, Access Bank have made another commitment to build more computer rooms and provide more computers for them.” He explained.
