Three delegates from LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited visited IITA–CGIAR on 22 September. Their goal was to explore collaboration with IITA in tree planting and agroforestry to enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The inclusive tree-planting initiative would aim to improve the livelihoods of their local beneficiaries.
The team was welcomed by Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery (DDG-P4D), Kenton Dashiell; DDG Corporate Services, Hilde Koper-Limbourg; and Head of IITA Forest Center, Adewale Awoyemi.
LAPO’s Head of Sustainability and CSR, Brandie Stevens-Igbe, gave a brief background of the organization’s activities and the aim of their visit. She said, “LAPO started as an NGO 30 years ago. It metamorphosed into a microfinance bank aiming to give the poor, underbanked women, and other beneficiaries money to participate in the economy, up their skills, boost their income, and improve their livelihoods.”
Stevens-Igbe continued, “We want to contribute by planting trees to the existing food crop plantations of our rural clients so they can gain more from their existing source of livelihood, which is farming.”
Responding to their request, Awoyemi said, “I like it when people talk about CSR in relation to the environment, biodiversity, and improving rural livelihoods. Your request is in synchrony with some of our projects; the Olokemeji Reforestation Project, for example. There, we use the bottom-up approach to engage community members to own the reforestation project and protect trees rather than cut them down.”
Awoyemi assured the LAPO team that they had come to the right place, adding that the Forest Center supplies tree seedlings across the ecological zones of Nigeria, even to the northern Savanna in Nigeria, and can deliver millions of them.
He also counseled the team to leverage IITA’s years of research to introduce improved varieties of food crops to their clients. He assured them that the Forest Center possesses expertise that will improve the global standard of LAPO where the project is concerned. He said the Forest Center’s multi-pronged tree planting approach is designed to deliver on various counts, including community engagement, habitat restoration, climate change mitigation, greener environment propagation, and biodiversity support.
Dashiell and Koper-Limbourg congratulated the team for finding the support they needed from IITA and assured them of the best cooperation and service from the Forest Center.
The LAPO representatives toured IITA facilities, including the Forest Center’s Nursery, where they saw first-hand various seedlings and trees that made them connect further with nature. They plan to pilot the project in Ibadan and Benin and expand to the 34 states LAPO currently operates in Nigeria.
Contributed by Folake Oduntan
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