By Olushola Okunlade
Airtel Nigeria, a leading telecommunications services provider, has won the coveted Partnership of the Year award at the 17th edition of the prestigious Sustainability, Enterprise, and Responsibility Awards (SERAS) held at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday, December 15, 2023.
The accolade was in recognition of Airtel’s Re-imagine Education initiative, a consequential collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
According to the SERAS organizers, the jury’s selection of Airtel is in recognition of the benchmark set by the telecom giant in synergy, impact, and innovation through its visionary collaborations, noting that Airtel’s partnership with UNICEF has delivered commendable improvement to the education system of Nigeria.
The Airtel/UNICEF Re-imagine Education program, which officially kicked off in Nigeria in December 2022, aims to transform education, leveraging the power of technology to enhance teaching and learning experiences for children across the country. Currently, working with UNICEF, Airtel has helped to equip more than 620 Nigerian primary schools with data and digital devices to enable them to access educational content related to their classwork on government-approved platforms on the Web. In September, Airtel announced plans to increase the number of beneficiary schools by 600.
Speaking during the award ceremony, Director, Corporate Communications and CSR, Airtel Nigeria, Femi Adeniran, said “Transforming communities is not just a catchphrase for Airtel and CSR is not just something we do occasionally; we understand the importance of earning our social license by making CSR a way of life, hence we constantly do all we can to touch the lives of people.”
The SERAS Awards is the foremost event recognizing achievement in CSR in Africa, and for 17 years has raised awareness of the roles that organizations play in community development and sustainability across the continent. SERAS has said its purpose is to substantiate the case that socially responsible corporations stand to gain considerable economic, social, and environmental capital.
The 2023 edition of the awards gala brought together renowned sustainability experts, public relations practitioners, brand custodians, and government officials.
