With its pioneering status as the first Foundation to be established by a Nigerian telecommunication company, MTN Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility vehicle of leading ICT Company, MTN Nigeria, is celebrating a decade of touching lives through its hugely impactful social investments in education, health, and economic empowerment.
Founded on the 11th of May, 2005, the Foundation is funded by up to one percent profit after tax (PAT) from MTN Nigeria and has become the leading driver of social investments through the expenditure of over 11 billion naira in 341 project sites across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu, Chairman, MTN Foundation noted that the successes which have been recorded in the last 10 years are based on the Foundation’s ability to leverage on the power of local and international partners who are able to bring relevant knowledge and experience to the table, to create and execute sustainable projects across the country.
“The giant strides made by the Foundation and the remarkable transformation of lives seen through the gains of our various initiatives in the area of health, education and economic empowerment are an eloquent testimony of how well we have been able to demonstrate ourcommitment to enriching lives and adding value to the lives of the citizenry,” Ambassador Ahmadu said.
On his own part, Mr. Wale Goodluck, Corporate Services Executive of MTN and Director of the Foundation, expressed delight at the giant strides made in the past decade adding that corporate social responsibility is at the core of MTN’s organizational philosophy. “We are excited that our mission to improve the quality of life in communities all over the country has yielded great dividends as evidenced by the positive impact our initiatives have had in helping to reduce poverty as well as foster sustainable development in Nigeria,” Goodluck added.
He pledged that the Foundation will not relent in its efforts. The Foundation, said Goodluck, will continue to seek creative ways to support and add value to lives in many more communities.
MTNF educational initiatives have seen it provide digital libraries and ICT laboratories to universities and secondary schools, respectively, across the country while empowering others with scholarships in music and science and technology. Under its healthcare portfolio, it has provided mammography and dialysis machines to public hospitals across the country as well as its trailblazing eyesight restoration intervention where a lot of persons have benefited from free cataract surgeries, eye glasses and drug packs. Under its economic empowerment portfolio, MTNF has carried out and supported a wide range of activities designed to enable job provision, skills acquisition among other various stakeholder groups such as the disabled, widows and visually impaired students.
In recognition of its positive contributions, MTNF has received numerous awards, including the 3rd CSR Nigeria Industry Award: Innovative Partnership Award for Outstanding Work in Corporate Social Responsibility and Creating “Shared Value”; Advertising Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards: Best Corporate Social Responsibility Company and Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria: Special Appreciation Award in recognition of MTNF work and Support for Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria among many others.

[myad]

The Nigeria Institute for Management (NIM) has conferred its Fellowship on Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The President of NIM and chairman of Council, Dr. Nelson Uwaga who conferred the award in Asaba, Delta state capital, during the inauguration of five chapters of the NIM today said that the Governor was conferred with the fellowship of the Institute because of the professionalism he has brought to the governance of Delta State.
He gave assurance that other Nigerians who are prudent in the management of resources like governor Uduaghan would continued to be recognised by the Council of NIM.
Besides conferring the Governor with the Fellow of Nigeria Institute of Management (Chartered) at the ceremony, he also inaugurated five chapters of the NIM. The chapters are: Abraka, Edjeba, Okpe, Udu and Uvwie.
Governor Uduaghan thanked the NIM for conferring on him the Fellowship of the Institute even as he stressed the need for NIM to organise training programmes for members and non-members to build human capacity for good governance in our country.
The governor also called for the intervention of professional managers in Nigeria’s economy to check the downward slide in the nation’s economy.
According to him, given the current economic down turn of the country, Nigeria deserves good managers of the economy to make progress.
He therefore challenged NIM to be actively involved in the training and discovering of good managers to manage the nation’s economy because of the dwindling capacity available to manage the resources of the country.
“This is the time we need the NIM most in Nigeria: we have a lot of challenges with our economy, the funds are not just there, we need managers to run the economy of the states and federal government, we need NIM to impart prudent management skills to those running our economy.”
Uduaghan made it clear that good governance entails a lot of things, including the efficient management of human and financial resources of the state, stressing that the human capacity required to manage a budget of N300 billion or more in the present day Nigeria would definitely be higher than that used to manage a budget of N10 billion in 1999.
“The challenges of management goes beyond the public sector to the private sector, the capacity used to manage the 1999 budget of N10 billion is not the same as that required to manage our present day budget of over N300 billion. The budget has risen, but has our capacity risen in the same way?”
He also, called for good communication between the managers of resources and the masses on issues and challenges affecting governance noting that such would reduce suspicion, rumour mongering and mischief.

[myad]