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In the area of Education, Access Bank is actively involved in projects to help the society achieve MDG 2, that is, Universal Primary Education. These interventions range from providing infrastructural facilities, to mentoring and attitudinal change initiatives.
All the initiatives are selected through community researches, to determine the exact needs of the people and the best way to intervene. The communities, school authorities, the schools education board and the government were involved in the selection process and the implementation. This also created a sense of ownership by the recipients of the initiatives and as such, will help engender sustainability of the projects.
The case studies provided lend credence to the firm commitment of Access Bank, as a good corporate citizen, to the achievement of the MDGs.
GARKI MODEL PRIMARY SCHOOL The Garki Model Primary School caters for a diverse group of students, including the physically challenged. Though located within the town, the school was dilapidated due to long period of neglect.
In order to address this situation, Access Bank provided 400 desks for 20 classrooms and 20 teacher’s tables and chairs. We also committed to a maintenance programme for the school, spanning a period of 3 years (2009 – 2011). In addition to the desks provided, plans are in place for selected management staff of Access Bank to anchor mentoring sessions for the students at the school.
HALIRU RIJIA MODEL PRIMARY SCHOOL At Haliru Rijia Model Primary School in Sokoto State, classrooms were ramshackled, with damaged roofs, resulting in displacement of students during the raining season. The floor was damaged and thus hazardous to students while playing or walking thereby causing bodily harm and rendering the school unsafe for learning activities. Access Bank stepped in to address the situation by renovating the school through re-flooring the entire school, replacing all derelict roofs, which encompassed 6 classrooms and repainting the 15 classrooms that required a whitewash.
NATIONAL ESSAY COMPETITION
Access Bank is committed to a partnership support for the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE Essay Competition, spanning a period of 10 years. The partnership commitment commenced in 2006 and is still on-going.
Since its inception, over 10,000 students have participated. By supporting the NSE Essay Competition, Access Bank aims to empower the youths with the culture of savings and long term investment, expose them to the benefits of investment in stocks; enthrone self-reliance among the youths as preparatory to economically buoyant adult life; train the students in line with the National Policy on Education and expand individual shareholders base in Nigeria Capital Market.
We are actively committed to supporting global efforts aimed at combating global health issues. In achieving this, we will partner with local and international organizations/agencies to fostering awareness on health issues, build/rehabilitate health infrastructure and provide drugs for disease treatment and management. Our initiatives include:
SME WORKPLACE POLICY PROGRAMME Access Bank in partnership with the Friends Africa of the Global Fund Africa (Friends Africa) are scaling up the prevention and treatment of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through the Access Bank Workplace Policy Workshops aimed building the capacity of SMEs to develop and implement best in class workplace policies. This project will be implemented in 3 phases. In the 1st phase 250 SMEs will be trained will 500 SMEs and 1000 SMEs will be trained in the 2nd and third phase respectively.
The workshop sessions will focus on establishing the need for a workplace health policy for SMEs, what the workplace health policy should entail and provide guidelines for the SMEs to provide tailored health policies to meet their organizational needs. The workshops will give SMEs the opportunity to dialogue with corporations that already have established workplace health policies and learn from them, what works best.
This project will, amongst other things, provide support to ensure that the workplace policies and programmes developed are in compliance with existing laws regarding prevention and management of the three diseases – HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. The policy would include provisions in the following areas:
GRASSROOTS CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINAR We partnered with Friends of The Global Fund Africa Grassroots Capacity Building Seminar. Through a very competitive process that examined structure, composition, thematic-focus, credibility and readiness for growth, 60 unique grassroots-serving organizations were selected from 26 African countries. These 60 grassroots organizations which work in a variety of areas including AIDS, TB, Malaria, Reproductive health, Gender, Income generation, among others, went through a 3-day capacity building process to enable them to increase the planning, evaluation and fund raising capacity, establish contact with other NGOs across Africa and seek ways to creatively support HIV/AIDS initiatives and educate grassroot NGOs across Africa on the fundamentals of accessing fund from banks and funding agencies for their projects.
Tools in fundraising/proposal development, project management, monitoring and evaluation, financial management and procurement were also advised to the participating NGOs.
ACCESS BANK SUPPORTS THE 2008, GBC / CORPORATE AFRICA HEALTH CONFERENCE In 2007, Corporate Africa partnered with the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC) to launch an annual health conference and exhibition which provides a platform where stakeholders in African Healthcare could engage in public private partnership for the purpose of engaging partners and other forms of collaborations that could impact upon the supplies of services and medical technologies that could increase capacity and consumers’ choices in National Health Services in all areas of prevention and care in Africa.
The 2nd Corporate Africa Health Conference is a sustainable platform to source potential partners for consultation, funding, management, distributorships, agencies and technology. The exhibition provides an array of the latest testing and diagnostic technologies that could significantly improve prevention of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Nigeria and across Africa.
We have taken a conscious decision to support young & promising Nigerian artists with a view to create a modest platform for exposure of their works and talents. We have deliberately embarked on the global promotion of our rich heritage and cultural icons through exhibitions and competitions and patronage of Artworks for use in our premises and corporate publications e.g. Season’s greeting cards, calendars, annual reports.
MIRROR THE MASTER Mirror the Master is a creative initiative that is aimed at helping develop art by celebrating the work of established art masters, through the talent and aspirations of younger generation artists. The initiative will be carried out through a workshop and exhibition based approach. Workshops will facilitate the introduction of the masters and their works to young participants with a view to increasing their appreciation for the arts and stimulating their artistic skills.
The selected Master for the 2009 edition is Benedict Enwonwu. Participating children will be of primary to secondary school age, minimum age 9, maximum age 16, from a mix of private and public sector schools. Workshops are facilitated by a number of living art masters.
At the end of the tour, an outcome exhibition and art competition will hold in order to select the best three works from entries curated from all zones of the exhibition.
Workshops have been held in
The Mirror the Masters Benin, Art workshop began with a courtesy visit to the Oba of Benin Palace and the National Museum, Benin, to learn more about the Benin culture by interacting with the Oba and also through collection of historical Benin artefacts at the museum.
The workshop commenced on the second day at the Oba Akenzua cultural centre. The students were first registered and subsequently educated on canvass painting. The participants thereafter were provided with painting materials including a black canvass to create their own images.
The Benin art workshop ended on the third day with an art exhibition, during which various artworks created during the workshop were displayed before a panel of judges (Arts masters) charged with the responsibility of selecting the best three arts works.
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The 3 day arts workshop commenced with a tour around Kaduna’s historical and cultural centres. Historical centres visited includes: Arewa House and the National Musuem, Kaduna. Though the tour, participants were educated on history of northern Nigeria.
The art workshop commenced on the second day at the Drama Village, ABU. During the workshop, the students were introduced to Mirror the Masters initiative and taught how to paint on canvass using paints and colours. The participants thereafter were provided with painting materials including a black canvass to create their own images.
The arts workshop was concluded on the third day with an art exhibition and a prize giving ceremony recognizing all the participants and the best three artefacts created during the workshop. A total of 102 artworks were created during the workshop. These artworks were arranged before the panel of judges for assessment and selection of the winners.
The Enugu workshop commenced with the registration of participating students at the Central School, Nsukka. The students were introduced to the initiative, its purpose and expectations from participants. The students were then taught the rudiments of canvass painting (including: how to assemble the frame or chassis; mount a canvass; mix colours and achieve different paint styles by skilful manipulation of paint brushes) before being given blank canvass; painting brushes; and colour pallets to create their own images.
The arts workshop continued on the second day with an art exhibition were art works created by participants were displayed before a 3-man panel of judges. During the art exhibition/ prize giving ceremony, Model Primary School and Aguachara Primary School Army Barracks presented innovative cultural dances though a group choreographed portraying the richness of the Igbo culture, tradition, formalities, rhythm, expressions and group synchronization.
The artworks produced by the participants were assessed and judged by a “3 - man” panel of judges based on such qualities as: beauty, skill, inherent meaning, uniqueness and fulfilled intent. The judges were responsible for selecting the top three art works.
On the third and final day of the arts workshop, participants were taken on a tour around the Ben Enwonwu building. The building houses art works produced by the late Ben Enwonwu including portraits, ceramics, textile materials and the tools for making these artworks.
BONHAMS UK INAUGURAL AUCTION OF AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART The Bonhmas Art Exhibition is a rare and unique opportunity for the talent of African Artists to be showcased to a global audience of connoisseurs, buyers, art lovers, dealers, collectors and experts’ thereby promoting Africa’s rising profile as “The Continent whose time has come”.
The Auction themed “Africa Now”, featured the work of prominent African Artist such as Ben Enwonwu MBE - whose modernist aesthetic defined modern African Art internationally in the mid-twentieth century - , Bruce Onabrakpeya, Ghanaian El Anatsui, Malangatana Ngwenya, Jimoh Buraimoh, Ben Osawe, Emmanuel Ekefrey and Taiwo Jegede, Kunle Adegborioye and Nnenna Okore.
In addition, the exhibition also serves as a dual function of highlighting the work of the Pan-African charity – SOS Africa. An initiative of this magnitude is the first of its kind by a Nigerian corporate organisation and Access Bank is proud to be in the driver seat in the development and re-positioning of African art and culture globally.
ARTHOUSE CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION AND AUCTION Ninety-Three (93) works by Nigerian artists and four Ghanaians were up for sale during the auction. The artists work auctioned include Simon Okeke, Erhabor Emokpae, Okpu Eze, Chuka Amaefuna, Ben Osawe, Chuks Anyanwu, Solomon Wangboje, Alex Shyngle, Shina Yusuff, Abayomi Barber, Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, David Dale, and Kolade Oshinowo.
Access Bank recognises the role played by sports. We embark on initiatives that contribute to sustainable sports development, thereby creating the capacity of sports to provide employment for able bodied youths and attract national glory.
We support sports through sponsorships of major domestic and international sporting events, provision of sporting kits and equipments to relevant sporting teams and endowment for Sports academies.
ACCESS BANK/EMIR OF KATSINA CHARITY SHIELD POLO TOURNAMENT We are committed to a 4-year partnership with the 5th Chukker Polo Tournament starting from 2008. Annually, this tournament brings together world’s best polo players to compete for the UNICEF and the Governor's Cup.
Funds raised are utilized for the cause of children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
MINNA SQUASH COURT We entered into a partnership with the Government of Niger State to renovate the Talba Squash Court Minna. This is project included the specialist squash court installation, painting and other minor renovations.
We believe sustainable operations are those that drive efficient resource use and provide a healthy environment, which in turn facilitates social progress and economic growth. As a socially responsible organization, we therefore strive to act as responsible stewards of the environment and commit to its continuous and sustainable development. To balance environmental challenging needs, we are committed to efficient and effective practices. We recognise that sustainability is the collective responsibility of governments, businesses, individuals and communities and so work in partnership with our stakeholders to pursue this goal.
A demonstration of our commitment is the integration of environment as one of our focus areas under our Group Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. This has provided us with a platform, to address global environmental concerns relating to the environment and more importantly to climate change.
Our initiatives include:
GOING GREEN; BEYOND WORDS
“Going Green: Beyond words” is two pronged with both internal and external aspect. The internal aspect of this initiative involves: integration of an Environmental Management System (EMS) into the Bank’s operations; evaluating the Bank’s environmental impact by executing a detailed Carbon footprint; setting environmental targets and objectives to minimize the Bank’s environmental impact.
The external aspect of “Going Green; Beyond Words” is a Tree Planting Initiative.
ACCESS BANK TREE PLANTING INITIATIVE
The Access Bank, tree planting initiative was implemented in partnership with Idea Builders, an NGO engaged in the promotion of environmental friendly activities including but not limited to tree planting activities in various communities within Nigeria.
The initiative was implemented through an education based approach, involving the participation of over 628 students across 16 schools located in – Abuja, Abia State and Lagos State.
At inception of the initiative, tree planting workshops held across selected schools. The workshop was necessary to familiarize participating students with the objectives of the tree planting initiative and also learn how to grow and nurture trees. The participating schools were also provided with toolkits to support the growth of the trees.
Over 2,500 trees have been planted across Nigeria in the 2009 pilot phase. With direct nurturing by tree planting clubs instituted across participating schools.
Participating schools across the Zones are: