A foundation known as Sir Emeka Okwuosa Foundation (SEOF) has unveiled plans to empower secondary school students, underprivileged women and farmers with resources to improve their skills, livelihoods and communities.
The Chairman of the foundation, Mr Emeka Okwuosa, made this known on Tuesday via a report from the inaugural SEOF Gala Night in Lagos State.
Okwuosa said that generosity and compassion inspired him to establish SEOF.
Okwuosa, also a business mogul and philanthropist, said that the foundation had been impacting lives and communities in more than 14 states of Nigeria.
He listed the states as Anambra, Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna, Abuja, Kogi, Oyo, Ekiti, Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Delta, Imo and Abia.
Okwuosa said that sustainable socio-economic empowerment should be centered on providing market-facing skills and opportunities, particularly to the youth, who constitute the majority of the Nigerian and African population.
The chairman said that in 2024, the foundation would launch a national engineering competition, a women enterprise programme and an agro-cluster cooperative programme.
He said that the engineering competition would aim to identify outstanding engineering students working on innovative prototypes with real-world applications.
According to him, the competition is designed to encourage engineers and aspiring engineers to work toward collectively tackling Nigeria’s challenges.
He said that the competition could be expanded across Africa in the future.
“The women enterprise programme aims to support women entrepreneurs in scaling up their businesses through skill-building workshops, mentoring, networking opportunities and access to funding and markets.
“The agro-cluster cooperative programme aims to provide jobs and enhance food security – not only locally, but also across the country – by providing farmers access to inputs and guaranteed off-take as a catalyst for more robust farming.
“Witnessing fellow Nigerians endure hardships without attempting to alleviate their suffering is something I find impossible.
“Each day, we are reminded of the challenges that our nation faces – from the strain on our economy and infrastructure to unsettling food insecurity.
“Our goal is to teach beneficiaries how to fish so that they can feed themselves and their communities for a lifetime,” he said.
Okwuosa listed achievements of the foundation to include facilitation of $217,939 open-heart surgeries for 34 patients at the Dame Irene Okwuosa Memorial Hospital in 2022.
According to him, the others are provision of primary healthcare services to over 566 beneficiaries, building of a garri processing factory and donation of motorcycles to assist small-business owners.
He called for partnerships with well-meaning individuals and organisations to effect positive changes in people and communities.
“Together, I am confident we can unlock growth and opportunities that far surpass what we could achieve individually,” he said.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria
