UBA Foundation partners UK, others for sustainable socio-economic development
To help catalyse a sustainable socio-economic development, UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa group, has identified and demonstrated its support towards the International Women’s Day, by partnering with the United Kingdom and 10 other organisations, with the aim to improving girls’ access to education and employment in developing countries.
The UBA Foundation revealed that other private sector players which include Accenture, Standard Chartered, Unilever, Microsoft, Pearson, PwC, Coursera, Vodafone, BP, and Cognizant will fund and resource the initiative to the tune of £11m.
The Foundation also noted that the UK government will be working in partnership with UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited to fund this programme. It added that the programme aims to impact one million girls around the world.
Also, the CSR arm also pointed out that the UK government has contributed an initial £9m to the initiative called the Girls’ Education Skills Partnership programme.
Tony Elumelu, Group Chairman, UBA, Tony Elumelu, said: “We understand first-hand the need to empower young women in African communities to catalyse sustainable socio-economic development.
At the UBA Group, we are committed to women empowerment and we continue to champion women’s causes in our business and through our work in philanthropy. Working together, we must ensure that our girls are properly educated and attain the necessary skills that allow them to effectively compete as the world becomes increasingly global.”
The Prime Minister of UK, Boris Johnson, stated that this was part of activities to mark International Women’s Day 2022. According to him, the £20m worth partnership is expected to have far-reaching positive effects for the girl-child across the world.
“The United Kingdom has long been a proud and mighty champion of this fundamental cause and today we take one leap further through our first Global Partnership of its kind — opening up opportunities for one million girls across the developing world to have access to high-quality skills training.
“Ensuring every girl and young woman across the globe receives 12 years of quality education is the greatest tool in our armoury to end the world’s great injustices. Delivering on this mission will be one of the best defences against ignorance, ensure the greatest protection from prejudice and put a rocket booster behind our hopes and dreams for global development in the years to come,” he said.
Johnson explained that some of the businesses involved will be contributing a range of resources including books, computers and other technology, mentoring, advice and access to their networks, skills and training programmes.
He added that private sector involvement would help ensure that education and learning opportunities provide girls with the skills for the future that employers need.
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