Sterling One, United Nations Nigeria Holds Summit To Drive Social Impact Across Africa

Sterling One Foundation and the United Nations Nigeria will be holding the Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS 3.0) 2024 for sustainable development across Africa.

This was made know at the press conference for the Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS 3.0) 2024, held in Lagos.

Present at the press conference were CEO, Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe; resident and humanitarian coordinator, United Nations in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall; MD/CEO, Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, among other key stakeholders and partners.

ASIS, which started in 2022, has grown into a significant platform for driving social impact across Africa. The summit with the theme, ‘Reimagining Progress: A New Blueprint for Sustainable Growth in Africa’ underscores the need for collaborative efforts to tackle Africa’s development challenges effectively.

Also, the summit aims to bring together various stakeholders from the public sector, private sector, and development ecosystem to create effective partnerships and advocate for impactful policies.

CEO, Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe stated, “the Africa Social Impact Summit has three major goals: to galvanize effective partnerships across the public sector, private sector, and the development ecosystem; to advocate for policies that will attract investments in major development sectors; and to ensure impactful investments in those sectors.

“We are pleased to announce that over 40 per cent of last year’s participants have received various levels of investment.”

She added that “one significant example is the MTN Foundation’s investment of over N3 billion to support primary healthcare centers across the country in partnership with the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria.

“This year, we will host an investors roundtable on July 24, 2024 as a pre-event engagement before the summit on July 25th and 26th.”

She said “we invite stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, and representatives from the private and public sectors, to join us in reimagining progress and designing a new blueprint for sustainable growth in Africa.”

The United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall highlighted the urgency of the summit’s goals, saying, “we have discovered that we are behind on several indicators, and this comes at a time of numerous global challenges, including economic downturns.

“With only six years left to achieve the 2030 SDG targets, it is time to double our efforts. This gathering is crucial for galvanizing partnerships, as the SDGs are designed in such a way that no single sector or entity can meet these goals alone.

MD/CEO of Sterling Bank and member of the Board of Trustees for Sterling One Foundation, Abubakar Sulieman expressed confidence in the summit’s collaborative potential, stating, “as I walked into this room, I realized that our collective effort can achieve our goals. The institutions represented here demonstrate that we are well on our way to success.

“At Sterling Bank, we have always believed in using our trusted position to solve problems by galvanising partnerships. In the social impact scene, we are many but often weak due to being distributed and disconnected.”