With the commencement of its Annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week, First Bank Nigeria (FBN) has announced plans to partner the Nigeria Conservation Foundation in a bid to plant 50,000 trees in three years from 2023 across the country.

The tree-planting is one of First Bank’s initiatives to reduce its carbon footprints and promote environmental sustainability. It is part of its overarching sustainability and ESG (Environment, Social & Governance) strategy and in alignment with the Nigeria Conservation Foundation’s Forest Programme – Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN).

GRN is designed to help increase Nigeria’s forest cover from its current state of about 4-7% to 25% by 2047.

For the past seven years, FirstBank colleagues and customers come together to participate in global annual volunteer (Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness) SPARK initiative, to give back to and foster positive change within the communities where they live and work. This has seen an impact of over 200,000 lives across eight countries, over 103 charities supported as well as over 121,015 volunteer hours achieved.

The Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications for FirstBank, Ms. Folake Ani-Mumuney noted: “At FirstBank, we are committed to promoting the culture of kindness as it continues to engender positive relationships with our host communities. By making kindness a way of life, we build stronger communities, foster empathy, and create a positive ripple effect that extends far beyond this week.”

The activities of the 2023 edition holding 23 to 28 October 2023, include tree-planting, women empowerment, SPARK schools engagement, orphanage homes visit, the less privileged engagement, and Kind Comments Day.

Additionally, in line with First Bank’s commitment to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG) of women empowerment, the Bank will support cancer foundations focused on women and skills acquisition for women on 25 and 26 October 2023.

As a member of UN Women, FirstBank employs the relevant women empowerment tools to empower women internally and externally as well as partner with International Women Society to drive skills acquisition.

The Kind Comments Day is an advocacy campaign encouraging staff, customers, and other stakeholders to say kind things about one another. It focuses on inspiring and encouraging people to be deliberate about the use of kind words in relation to others.

On 27 October 2023, staff of the Bank will visit schools for the SPARK School Engagement. This activity is aimed at engaging school students through the Bank’s employees on financial literacy and inculcating and equipping young people with entrepreneurship skillset and mindset to inspire self-belief despite the increasingly daunting economic challenges while preparing them for the future of work.

Rounding off the 2023 CR&S Week will be visits to Orphanage Homes, the less privileged engagement which will hold on 28 October 2023. Orphanages, including the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs), will be visited in six geo-political zones in Nigeria as well as other SSA markets.

 It’s great to see our volunteers demonstrate their continued commitment to positively impact our communities.  In the spirit of kindness, I encourage everyone to join us in celebrating the FirstBank Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability week as we make kindness a part of our daily lives, interacting with one another in impactfully memorable ways,” she concluded.

First Bank has continued to receive awards and recognition for its consistent positive impact and performance from reputable companies globally. Amongst these awards and accolades are the Most Socially Responsible Bank (2018) (International Finance Banking Awards); CSR Bank of the Year (2020) Business Day Banking & Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards; Market Leader Nigeria (CSR) Euromoney Market Leaders 2022; Best CSR Bank Nigeria (2021) (Global Banking and Finance magazine); Excellence in Women Economic Empowerment (2019) (Central Bank of Nigeria); Market Leader Nigeria (ESG) Euromoney Market Leaders 2022.