As part of its commitment towards enhancing capacity building through quality education, the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has entered into a strategic partnership with Sterling Bank Plc. This was disclosed in Lagos at the Bank’s corporate head office, during a press briefing.
The partnership is a strategic move by both parties to foster capacity development by equipping students with qualitative education and the required skills to take on leadership roles that will impact positively on the society.
Speaking on the choice of Sterling Bank Plc, the President of NAPPS, Lagos Chapter, Chief YomiOtubela, said the Sterling Bank Plc was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Council of the Association based on its contribution to the growth of the sector through capacity building, sponsorship of activities in the education sector and commitment to the development of education in the country.As part of the Agreement, the NAPPS boss disclosed that the Bank will be actively involved in the association’s annual retreat tagged, “Effective Empowerment of Schools through Collaborative Capacity Building & Leadership”, scheduled to hold last week of February, this year.
.He regretted that despite the willingness of people in the private sector to invest in education, most of them were faced with challenges such as proper book keeping and accounting, corporate governance and human capital development among others.
“The partnership with Sterling Bank is therefore expected to address these challenges through access to finance, sponsorships and staff development”, the NAPPS president stated.
In his remarks, Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Sterling Bank’s, Mr. ShinaAtilola, said that the decision of the Bank to support NAPPS was based on the Association’s resolve to work with like-minded institutions to improve the poor state of the education sector in the country for good. He added that the lender’s choice of projects to support in the education sector was based purely on the outcome of research conducted on the key issues hindering the sector.
Atilola who stressed that the primary focus of Sterling Bank is to enrich lives by adding value through capacity building and development opined that government alone cannot solve the problem of education in Nigeria.
His words: “There is a need for the intervention of the private sector in the development of education to bring the sector back to its rightful place in the country. Government is doing its best, but we are not there yet.
That is why the private sector must come in and invest in the education sector if our children to obtain qualitative education without having to pay over the odds for it. Sterling Bank’s intervention in the sector will help to ameliorate some of the challenges the sector faces”.
He also spoke about some of the initiatives by the Bank in education: “We were the pioneer bank in Nigeria to partner the Lagos EKO Project using our staff as volunteer teachers to teach different subjects as part of our corporate social responsibility in the education sector.
Apart from that, Sterling Bank has helped to improve the look and feel of some schools and we are also supporting with books, writing materials, as well as textbooks. Our books ‘My Little Money Book’ and ‘Funds’, represent our way of providing a learning/teaching guide on savings, loans and other financial concepts.