Caption: From right, Anyagwa Adanma, CEO Adyva Foods; Ozena Utulu, Ag. Group Head, Corporate Communications, Heritage Bank and Nkechi Toluwani, project Partner, during the Adyva Foods’ project tagged, “Feed a Kid,” in collaboration with Heritage Bank for the commemoration of Children’s Day celebration.
As part of its sustainability drive in the corporate social responsibility space, Heritage Bank Plc says it is committed to improving the welfare and economic development of communities.
The bank, as part of its celebration of the Children’s Day, fed over 500 underprivileged children as part of aproject tagged, “Feed a Kid,” in collaboration with Adyva Foods.’
Statistics, the bank said, show that an estimated two million children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), since an average Nigerian lives on less than a dollar per day, which makes it difficult for a lot of families to feed properly.
In an analysis of 91 countries, including Nigeria, a report by UNICEF report says that half of the children aged 6-23 months globally are not being fed the minimum recommended number of meals a day, while two-thirds do not consume the minimum number of food groups they need to thrive.
Against this backdrop, Ozena Utulu, Acting Group Head, Corporate Communications of the bank, said the commitment so far which is in line with the Sustainable Banking Practices, was to help mitigate hunger by providing to the less privileged and reduce the adverse effect of the food insecurity in the country.
According to her, we have continued to put sustainability at the heart of our decision-making for the sake of humanity and the bank’s own bottom line because a healthy planet is the backbone of nearly every industry on Earth.
“Heritage Bank’s partnership in this event offers us an opportunity to fulfill our quota in adherence to the sustainable banking practices that ensure that banks and related institutions have the interest of their stakeholders at the core of their strategies,” Utulu stated.
She also advised parents to explore the advantages and utilize the huge benefits the bank’s BUD account hold for their children.
“Access to cash-backed loan by parent/guardian/sponsor for school fees/education loan. You can access up to 70per cent of your balance held with the Bank as cash backed loan. The customer must have run the BUD account for a minimum of 6 months to access the cash-backed loan. Ease of saving through standing order instructions. Access to exclusive events. Free participation in the BUD MINI career mentoring and coaching sessions once a year. Opportunity to act as a Heritage Bank Executive Committee member for one day,” Utulu explained.
Also speaking, the CEO, Adyva Foods, Anyagwa Adanma said that the idea of the partnership was to feed over 500 less privileged kids with cooked food and provide them with goody bags containing stationery, educational materials to mention but a few.
She urged “parents to ensure they educate their children and teach them the savings culture and Financial literacy for future benefits.”
Also speaking at the event, Nkechi Toluwani, a partner with Adyva’s “Feed a Kid” project described Heritage Bank as “a supportive bank and the incentive behind feed a kid is huge, therefore, for Heritage Bank to partner with Adyva Foods to feed kids shows how compassionate, kind, and responsible the bank is to people’s welfare.”
