Following LAPO Microfinance Bank‘s previous visit to IITA-CGIAR to seek ways to enhance its Corporate Social Responsibility through tree planting, both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 11 September.
The project is an environmental sustainability initiative of the LAPO Microfinance Bank, with IITA Forest Center as the technical implementing partner. Representing LAPO Managing Director Cynthia Ikpownosa, Executive Director Gloria Bako said, “We considered the current challenges we have with climate change and lack of jobs for youths and decided to partner with IITA-CGIAR to implement our environmental sustainability ideas.”
She identified agriculture as a viable alternative to banking on crude oil for foreign exchange in Nigeria. Hence, the project will encourage food and fruit crops planted alongside tree seedlings in an agroforestry model. Brandie Stevens-Igbe, Head of Sustainability at LAPO, said: “LAPO has always been a social development bank that places premium emphasis on staff and client welfare. We are doing this to expand our social responsibility and enrich the quality of our clients’ lives.”
The project will offer free seeds to the beneficiaries of this initiative and train them to become trainers of subsequent beneficiaries. The schools and communities that will benefit from this project will receive the planting proceeds to enhance their sources of income and enrich their livelihoods.
IITA-CGIAR Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery (DDG-P4D), Kenton Dashiell, expressed his delight at the enacted partnership and stressed his expectation to see this partnership make multiple impacts on society. He continued, “We anticipate that our collaboration on this tree-planting initiative, alongside other areas of mutual interest, will yield numerous positive outcomes in Nigeria and abroad.”
Contributed by Folake Oduntan
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