Driving sustainable impact: Union Bank’s employees return for third employee volunteer day

FOR the third consecutive year, Union Bank and its employees celebrated their Employee Volunteer Day (EV Day) with a series of targeted charitable donations and projects, aimed at improving the lives of Nigerians.

In line with the bank’s efforts to drive sustainable impact and accelerate community development, EV Day is an employee-funded initiative that allows Union Bank and its employees the opportunity to give back to the community through various projects and activities that drive positive social change.

The latest instalment of the initiative tagged, ‘It starts with U,’ involved a bottom-up approach where employees were encouraged to identify needs within their host communities that required timely attention after which they pooled resources to solve some of these identified problems in these areas.

Through the initiative, 20 impactful projects were executed and commissioned in different communities across three regions of the nation. The projects, which directly impacted over 253,000 people, were centred around creating strategic development with a clear focus on health and wellness, environmental sanitation and education and welfare in Nigeria.

Three projects were executed and commissioned in the South West region where Bolade Jegede, Regional Executive for South West, led the team of Union Bank volunteers to the Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos, where they donated medical equipment to the neonatal unit to support existing facilities and help reduce neonatal mortality rate which currently accounts for about 25 per cent of the death toll for age five and below.

In the South East region, a total of eight projects were implemented across various states. Rosemary David-Etim, Regional Executive of the region, led a team of over 100 employee volunteers to commission the renovated toilet facility at Comprehensive Secondary School, Douglas Road, Owerri, Imo State, to support the governments’ efforts towards preventing pupils from contacting or spreading germs and infectious diseases which is now a national concern as only 10 per cent of Nigerian schools have basic hygiene services, including toilets.

Nine projects were also commissioned in different locations across the Northern Region. The Regional Executive, Fatai Baruwa, represented by Helen Okene, and other Union Bank employee volunteers carried out environmental sanitation in Dei-Dei building market, Abuja and donated waste bins to the market traders to improve waste collection and disposal within the market.

Other projects executed include; donation of N2 million to COPE towards breast and prostate cancer screening for at least 200 underprivileged men and women, donation of food supplies to various orphanage homes, donation of communal boreholes, school renovation and donation of traffic box to the traffic control unit of the police force.

Commenting on the initiative and expected project impact, Union Bank Chief Executive Officer, Emeka Okonkwo, said, “Union Bank is known for leading the charge for social impact. The theme for this EV Day tagged, ‘It starts with you,’ is a necessary reminder of the role each of us must play as individuals in upholding and driving sustainable impact in the communities we serve. I am so inspired by team Union and incredibly fortunate to work with colleagues that prioritises our vision of community development and corporate citizenship.”

Also commending the level of employee engagement, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, Ogochukwu Ekezie-Ekaidem, said, “Employee Volunteer Day is an initiative that is very close to my heart. Since 2019, we have executed projects in 30 locations across the country, impacting over 300,000 lives. I am grateful to every employee that has donated to the successful execution of these projects.”

Introduced in 2019, EV Day reinforces Union Bank’s dedication to building a workforce that is conscious about giving back to the communities where they live and work. The first edition was a sanitation exercise carried out in 15 locations across the country with participation from over 1,200 Union Bank employees along with their family and friends.

In 2020, the bank and its employees raised N10 million to provide the gift of water to over 15,000 Nigerians through the establishment of communal boreholes in six communities nationwide.

At Union Bank, community development remains one of its core focus and it continues to provide support to the communities where it operates.