Rotary Club of Lagos has announced the setting aside  of the sum of N30million, as part of its 2022/2023 Service Projects , aimed at growing economies within its operating environments and  reducing poverty.

 

Disclosing this at the club’s Annual Presidential Dinner held in Lagos, over the weekend,  the club’s president, Rotarian Joseph Akhigbe, stated that the funds would also be used to expand micro-credit facilities to businesses, within the environments,  and acquire primary product processing machinery for some target communities.

 

According to him, though the  current Rotary Year was half way gone, the club  had, in the past few months, been able to carry out several projects, while it intends to complete others in the remaining part of the  year.

 

Some of the projects, he stated, include: the granting of the a micro-credit loan of N1m to the Ifako Women Traders Union in July, this year, and another micro-credit loan of N2million to the Sandgrouse Market Association in October,  same year, in line with its Community and Economic Development theme.

 

Other corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives the club had also carried out in the 2022/2023 Rotary Year, he added, include its tree planting exercise at the Igbobi College, in August; and the donation of life jackets to residents of the riverine community at Makoko in  October, all in the year.

 

“We are currently constructing ten (10) boreholes in Coker Village, Ifo Local Government Area, Ogun State with a global grant of76,000 USD in partnership with the Rotary Club of Oberhausen Anthony-Huttle, Germany and some other Rotary Clubs.

 

“All projects are being executed in line with the Rotary’s areas of focus:  Peace Building & Conflict Resolution; Disease Prevention and Treatment; Water, Sanitation & Hygiene; Maternal and Child Health;  Basic Education and Literacy; Community and Economic Development;  and Supporting the Environment,” he added.

 

Commending the club for the positive impact it had made on its operating environment, through its various philanthropic gestures, former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Dr. Olabisi Onasanya stated that reaching out to the less-privileged in the society had become imperative  to engender the much-needed peace in the society.

 

Onasanya, now the Chairman/CEO, The Address Homes Limited, explained that the decision of the company,  to support the organisation, with a model primary school, consisting of a block of six classrooms with offices and toilet in Igboku Area, along Ilara-Igbonla, Ilara, Epe,  at the beginning of the 2022/2023 Rotary Year was informed by the need to bring smiles to the faces of the less fortunate, by ensuring more indigent students had access to education.

 

“One thing individuals and corporate organisations must know is that unless we make the society a better place to live in, we would not be able to enjoy whatever wealth or businesses we claim to be doing if we failed to care of the less-privileged in our society,” he stated.

 

“We must also know that our wealth is not measured by our affluence, or the amount of money we are able to stash in our bank accounts, but by the amount of smiles we are able to put on the faces of the needy,” he stated..