Lead Camp 2020: Union Bank Partners with Junior Achievement Nigeria to Empower the Girl Child | August 17th-21st

As part of its commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of the girl child, Union Bank has partnered with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) for the sixth consecutive time, to organize the annual LEAD Camp.  

The camp is a week-long program designed to identify, assemble, and coach exceptional female students from across Nigeria. As a result of the ongoing pandemic, this year’s edition will be held virtually for the first time since its inception in 2001. 

The mission of Leadership Empowerment Achievement and Development (LEAD) Camp is to inspire and empower young girls to become high-achieving women leaders while addressing Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls.
To achieve this mission, the participants are taken through a series of activities including leadership workshops, empowerment and panel sessions, and media projects.

During the Camp, the girls will have the opportunity to engage in enlightening discussions with Union Bank employees and leading women from both the private and public sectors in Nigeria.
They will also participate in conceptualization and development sessions that discuss critical issues such as career, financial literacy, and health, including sexual reproductive health. 

 For almost 20 years, JA Nigeria has organized this event to nurture young girls on their journey to becoming successful women. This year will be no different as about 200 girls are expected to be impacted over the duration of the 5-day program.

Commenting on the significance of the program, the Executive Director of JA Nigeria, Simi Nwogugu, emphasized the importance of empowering the girl child and appreciated Union Bank for their unwavering support and commitment to LEAD Camp despite the constrained economic environment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are committed to empowering young girls, impacting their lives, and setting their feet on the path to becoming successful women as we believe this is a step in the right direction to having a just and equitable society.

Though the outbreak of COVID-19 has instructed us to shun physical gathering and practice social distancing, this year’s edition of LEAD Camp will be implemented online for the first time allowing us to reach even more girls. 

Since the first edition of LEAD Camp in 2000, the program has inspired over 900 young girls who are now high achieving women in various sectors from running businesses to running non-profit organizations to make the world a better place. We, however, wish to appreciate Union Bank for the continuous partnership with us to empower and transform our young girls.” Nwogugu said.

Also commenting on the Bank’s partnership with JAN for the 2020 LEAD camp, the Head of Corporate Communications and Marketing, Ogochukwu Ekezie-Ekaidem said:

“Union Bank is pleased to partner with Junior Achievement Nigeria to organize the LEAD camp for the sixth year. This expresses our commitment to the push for gender equality and our focus on supporting the girl child. We are proud to see the impact of the program on these young girls from all across the country, and applaud the efforts of the JAN team who work tirelessly to prepare the young girls to take up leadership positions in the future.” 

 Union Bank is one of Nigeria’s foremost and most trusted financial institutions, dedicated to enabling the success of Nigerians and impacting its host communities through initiatives like this.                                                    

Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) is part of Junior Achievement Worldwide (JAWW), the world’s largest and fastest-growing non-profit economic education organization with a 120-country network. Since inception in 1999, JAN has reached over 1,000,000 students in over 20,000 classrooms in all the 36 states across the country and the FCT through over 5000 volunteers. As part of a global network, JAN can leverage resources and expertise to deliver localized cutting-edge experiential programs built on JAWW’s three pillars of work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy, to in- and out-of-school youth ages 5 to 27 free of charge.

For more information, visit: www.ja-nigeria.org 

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