Businesses cannot succeed when the society in which they operate fails. Therefore, corporate social responsibility isn’t just about a specific initiative; it’s about everything we do on a daily basis to maximize positive effects and minimize negative ones. This statement, which perfectly encapsulates FirstBank’s views on business, the environment, people, and society, was the main takeaway from the 2013 Responsible Business Summit in London.

First Bank of Nigeria Limited is adamant that small acts of kindness should be shared on a regular basis rather than waiting for a major event. The financial behemoth operates under the guiding principle that long-term prosperity requires both excellent company operations and the improvement of society.

Through creativity, constancy, and sincere advocacy, the bank has developed tactics over time that have allowed it to flourish and prosper as a commercial concern while also offering vital advantages to diverse sectors and areas of society.

Remember that FirstBank was a major player in the Nigerian private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) group during the global COVID-19 pandemic? Through it, the group was able to combat widespread hunger by providing palliative food packages and a robust e-learning platform for one million students, among other strategic interventions. This aligns with its credo of being woven into the fabrics of the society and not merely a business concern.

With a well-defined corporate social responsibility policy and a mindset that goes beyond “profit making” and “profit maximization,” the company, which has been in operation for more than 128 years, is well-positioned to withstand the test of time and meet sustainable growth in the market.

FirstBank started the yearly Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability week in order to strengthen the practice and solidify the culture of goodwill toward everyone. The leading bank in the country takes advantage of the chance to highlight and mobilize its CSR initiatives.

Every year, FirstBank employees, clients, and the general public have the opportunity to show the milk of human kindness that flows through them by volunteering their time and resources to certain charities during CR&S Week. It aspires to amplify FirstBank’s intrinsic culture of giving and volunteering as expressed in its Employee Giving and Volunteering.

FirstBank is getting ready for its 2022 CR&S Week, which is set to take place from August 22 to August 26. The week is expected to include a variety of heartfelt events and activities that will have a significant impact on a number of different touch points, such as widow support groups, schools, healthcare, and orphanages.

Through its subsidiary, FBNBank, the program would be implemented throughout Nigeria and other African nations where FirstBank has operations. Among them are FBNBank branches in Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Speaking ahead of the upcoming events, Folake Ani-Mumuney, Global Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications at the Bank, stated that the week was designated to rekindle acts of kindness in our society and that the activities are geared toward realigning society along the correct values, inspiring the populace to consciously make a positive difference in their immediate surroundings.
The program has “reflected FirstBank’s brand promise to always put its customers first while reinforcing the Bank’s role in driving sustainable development in the communities where it operates,” she said, referring to the program’s debut in 2017.

FirstBank launched the first-ever CR&S Week innovation in the financial sector from September 25 to 29, 2017, and it hasn’t stopped since.

The bank’s efforts in social responsibility came to a head during the first-ever FirstBank CR&S week, which had as its theme “Promoting Kindness; Putting You First.” The bank encouraged random acts of kindness throughout communities in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria as well as FirstBank subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa.

The week’s biggest highlights have been the SPARK project, which stands for Staff Promoting Acts of Random Kindness. Later on, it was renamed S.P.A.R.K., which stands for Start Performing Random Acts of Kindness. Although “Staff” was what the initial “S” stood for. To urge everyone to join the kindness brigade and expand the idea beyond merely staff, it was changed to “Start.” Also, “P” originally stood for “Promoting” but was changed to “Performing” to express the feeling that people are equally active in really completing kind deeds and not merely advocating kindness.

Employees of the bank donated their time and resources throughout the course of the week-long events to encourage random acts of kindness within local communities, promoting welfare through donations and visits to orphanages, impoverished houses, and internally displaced people.

Students in secondary schools participated in financial literacy and career counseling sessions led by the bank’s executive management.

Another important highlight was the nomination of Baby Ijeoma as a beneficiary of corrective heart surgery in India in cooperation with Vama Wave Foundation.

The impact of the first edition expanded beyond Nigeria as FirstBank’s subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK also participated, benefitting people and at least 22 organizations in six countries.

In 2018, the situation developed. With the slogan “Touching Lives; You First,” it was also used to donate time and materials to help others. Raising the bar, it concentrated on five major initiatives: improving financial literacy and independence for over 10,000 senior secondary school students through the FutureFirst program; empowering over 500 widows by providing start-up capital and capacity building as part of the UN International Widows’ Day commemoration in partnership with International Women’s Society (IWS) in Lagos; staff needs assessment and donation to 26 charities across eight countries; and the SPARK initiative during the second edition, which took place from June 19 to 23.

Speaking at Yaba College of Technology Secondary School during the celebration, the bank’s managing director, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, stated that the week-long event was a brand promise made by the bank to always prioritize the requirements of its stakeholders.

Reiterating the plan, he described it as an effort to strengthen the bank’s position as a catalyst for sustainable development in the areas in which it works.

The subject of the 2019 CR&S Week, which took place from July 1–6, was “Ripples of Kindness: Putting You First.” The bank’s philosophy that every act of kindness, no matter how small or in what shape, starts a chain reaction that never ends served as the inspiration for the theme.
This year’s CR&S Week was primarily centered around the SPARK program, which had garnered a great deal of attention.

The edition also included trips to secondary schools throughout Nigeria, where pupils received instruction on deeds of kindness and were inspired to choose kindness as a way of life.

In 2019, the customary endeavors persisted as well, encompassing excursions to orphanages and less privileged houses as well as the empowerment of widows through partnerships with International Women’s Society (IWS) Nigeria to enable a limited number of widows around Nigeria. The six geopolitical zones in Nigeria were covered by the implementation, with four states total—four states in each zone—hosting activities.

It started an e-Learning Initiative with partners like IBM, Robert & John, Curious Learning, and the Lagos State Government with the goal of transferring one million kids to secure online learning environments.

FirstBank, in collaboration with Robert & John, is providing schoolchildren with an e-learning solution called Roducate, which is available both online and offline (on preloaded devices) and features government-accredited curriculum and topics ranging from primary to tertiary level.

The Bank has collaborated with Curious Learning, which provides academic materials for young children (ages 3 to 8) in pre-school and early childhood education. The program uses engaging and self-directed learning applications to support the children’s development of basic cognitive abilities.

Additionally, IBM and its partners partnered to make Digital-Nation Africa, an online learning program aimed at youth, accessible to a wider audience. With focus areas like AI, coding, cloud computing, IoT, blockchain, data science and analytics, and cybersecurity, the program fosters innovation and skill development on emerging technologies.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, more than 150,000 students have already benefited from the e-Learning effort.

During the CR&S week in 2021, which ran from Monday, July 26 to Friday, July 30, FirstBank organized webinars titled “Making the Cyberworld a Kinder Place,” Kind Comments Days, and tours of orphans and less privileged families. Through which it persisted in its passionate appeals for everyone to practice kindness in daily life and make it second nature.

FirstBank has exhibited remarkable constancy in observing Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week, as well as the values it aims to propagate via the platform, over the years.

As the 2022 CR&S week edition gets underway (August 22–27), the Bank is continuing to pursue its advocacy and demonstrated commitment with unwavering tenacity, aiming to inspire and motivate people everywhere to venture outside of their comfort zones, turn their focus from their own needs and wants to those in society who are less fortunate than they are, and engage in random acts of kindness toward them.