FirstBank Reiterates Commitment to Tree Planting Initiative

Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank Group, Mr. Olusegun Alebiosu, has emphasised that the financial institution will not renege on its commitment in ensuring that tree planting becomes a key activity in the celebration of its annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CR&S) Week.

Led by the bank CEO, Olusegun Alebiosu, this activity is part of our initiative to plant 30,000 trees in 2024 and 50,000 by 2025.

Mr. Alebiosu, who stated this at the tree planting event held at the Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC), as part of the activities to mark FirstBank’s 2024 CR&S Week, last Thursday, said tha t the bank’s tree planting drive is also in line with its efforts to help combat climate change, “particularly a s it relates to carbon sink that en hances reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.”

He further noted that the campaign also aligns with the Paris Climate Agreement, Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Great Green Wall Initiative.

Stressing that the bank was confident of achieving the goal of its tree planting initiative, which is to plant 50,00 0 trees by 2025, Mr. Alebiosu said that the fi nancial institution was aiming to plant 30,000 trees across the country this year and that it had already kicked off this effort with the support of the students of Government Secondary School, Karshi, Abuja on Wednesday, August 21, 2024.

He commended the management and staff of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) for partnering with FirstBank on the initiative, stating that the bank appreciates the time and resources that the Foundation is contributing towards ensuring the success of the project.

Speaking fu rther on the bank’s CR&S Week, he stated that this is annual event during which special activities are dedicated towards promoting sustainable economic, social and environmental growth and development in the country and across FirstBank’s subsidiaries all over the world.

He said: “In the last seven years since we commenced the CR&S Week celebration, more than one million people and 300 charities, NGOs, foundations, health institutions and schools have been impacted across Nigeria and our subsidiaries in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, DRC, Senegal, Guinea and the United Kingdom.

“In 2023 alone, we partnered with multiple organisations and impacted about 60,000 lives with various SPARK (Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness) amplification projects carried out in 60 orphanage homes, 20 schools, and several hospitals. Remarkably, most of these projects were championed and implemented by volunteer FirstBank staff through the Employee Giving & Volunteering Scheme.

“Our SPARK activities for last year however climaxed with the kickoff of the ‘Tree Planting’ initiative which was introduced to spread the acts of kindness beyond humans, to the environment itself, thus showing kindness to nature and mother earth in appreciation for accommodating human existence and our various never-ending activities.”

In his remarks at the event, the Director General of the NCF, Dr. Joseph Onoja, who welcomed Mr. Alebiosu and his team to the LCC, commended the partnership between the Foundation and FirstBank, which he said, is helping to support the actualization of the Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN) project of the NCF.