Global Community Day #CitiVolunteers #Project350

For over a decade Citi has partnered with Junior Achievement Worldwide in empowering thousands of beneficiaries globally. However this event was a little different as JAN came on board to support Citi’s Global CSR initiative, Global Community Day on June 11^th, 2016 with Citi employees, partners, and friends.

Citi in partnership with The Lagos State Government and IHS joined forces on Project 350, a private-sector driven initiative to build libraries and ICT centres in secondary schools across Lagos State, and the creation of an online library which will serve as an Education Portal and a repository of knowledge. Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, Special Adviser in Education for Lagos State was there to shed some more light on this groundbreaking initiative. Citi adopted Government College, Waziri Ibrahim, Victoria Island Library under a five year partnership and renovated the school’s library with internet enabled computers, furniture and books. The library is also self-sustaining as it is powered by a solar inverter panel system, backed up by 15KVA generator generously donated by IHS.

Junior Achievement Nigeria partnered with Citi to facilitate panel discussions on Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship to a select students. For these young men to willingly to pass on a roaring soccer match between their peers and corporate mentors and remain attentive was a huge compliment and testament for their desire to be mentored. Mr. Akin Dawodu was brilliant; a natural teacher who made the lecture fun and memorable as it was a very interactive session.

Most importantly he was knowledgeable without alienating his audience and imbibed nuggets of wisdom in a manner that his audience could immediately identify with. Mr. Dawodu covered the entire presentation, answered questions from the audience while effortlessly engaging the speakers. Upon completion on the financial literacy presentation he left for the football match kickoff, made his rounds and came back to participate in the transition to the entrepreneurial discussion further as JAN Ambassador Mr. Tayo Oviosu CEO Paga took over as the moderator. Mrs. Helen Atohenegbe, Head of Business Strategy, Channelle Micro-Finance Bank; Mr. Pelu Awofeso, CEO Travel Next Door and JAN Ambassador Mr. Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director Paradigm Initiative shared their insights as entrepreneurs.

Gbenga Sesan gave an insightful definition of non-profits citing JAN as an example to show the students the non-profit doesn’t equal begging and how vital they are to filling the many gaps in our society. Our micro-finance expert for the day Mrs. Helen Atohenegbe, provided expert advice on funding options to those who may not qualify for traditional bank loans.

Pelu Awofeso; travel expert represented the niche market entrepreneurs out there who ignored the naysayers and filled a vacuum in Nigeria’s tourism industry despite cultural tensions and fears. Pelu found a way to not only make his business sustainable by evolving into a brand while empowering others through with his knowledge base built over fifteen years. Pelu strongly advised the students to become apprentices under knowledgeable mentors. Pelu described his journey to mastering his craft in a landscape where a lot of mentorship didn’t exist to being a sought out mentor himself. He encouraged the students not to pursue mundane careers and cited examples of Wole Soyinka who recently turned 83 and works with even more vigor now and encouraged them to seek what challenges them. JAN Marketing & Communications Manager Tobe Ifeanyi supported Pelu’s theory by adding that we are all here to be the best version of ourselves; not the best version of someone else. On that note we concluded the session so the students could catch the last few minutes of the soccer match which ended in a 1:1 tie between Citi employee’s and GCSS students. In addition over 30 attendee’s enlisted as volunteers with JA Nigeria to support our efforts to impact 1 million beneficiaries by 2020.

Our 2016 Vimp Alumni also came to the event and with their support we able to enlist 30 attendees as volunteers. Citi like our Board of Directors, Ambassadors and beneficiaries are truly committed to JA Nigeria. Their dedication is not watered down, or seasonal and we are grateful for their continued support.

#CitiVolunteers Speakers

Mr. Gbenga Sesan

Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative

Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), a social enterprise that connects underserved people-groups with ICT-enabled opportunities. Gbenga uses information and communication technology (ICT) to increase the employability of youths. He has several awards to his name in addition to academic qualifications. He is also a JA Nigeria alumni and Ambassador.

Mr. Pelu Awofeso

CEO, Travel Next Door

Pelu Awofeso is the CEO of @TravelNextDoor, a tour operating business, and the co-founder of Beach Samaritans, a volunteer-driven initiative that cleans public beaches in Nigeria bi-monthly a blogger, publisher and winner of the CNN/ Multichoice African Journalists Awards in the travel writing category. Author of three books, he is constantly on the road, exploring and documenting Nigeria's diverse culture and landscape

Mr. Tayo Oviosu

Founder/CEO Paga

Tayo Oviosu is an expert in the areas of technology, finance, mobile money and investment. Tayo has held top management positions in world-class organizations such as Deloitte, Cisco and more. He studied at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and University of Southern California. Tayo in history is referred to as the Mobile Money pioneer in Nigeria.

Mrs. Helen Atohenegbe,

Head of Business Strategy, Channelle Micro-Finance Bank

Chanelle Microfinance Bank Limited is duly registered and licensed by the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) as a unit microfinance bank, with the aim of providing banking services to all classes of people, especially the un-banked, small and medium scale companies. Channelle Micro-Finance Bank has partnered with JAN on projects with JP Morgan & Chase, MasterCard and currently Accenture Nigeria on our It’s Tyme, skills Acquisition program.

Mr. Obafela Bank-Omoleh, ‎Special Adviser to the Governor on Education at Lagos State Government

Citi CEO, Mr. Akin Dawodu on Ethics

Left to right: Pelu Awofeso, CEO Travel Next Door; Ms Petra Erhiyoma, M & C JAN; Mrs Efua Edeh, Executive Director, JAN; Mrs Helen Atonhegbe, Head Business Development Chanelle MicroFinance Bank; Ms. Tobe Ifeanyi, JAN