Date: 2022-02-17

The Managing Director of Polaris Bank Limited, Mr. Innocent C. Ike, has reiterated the commitment of the bank to improve the standard of education in Nigeria through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) interventions.

Ike stated this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, yesterday while presenting a cheque of N5million to support the management of Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, for the take-off of Open Distance Learning project of the polytechnic.

Ike stated that the bank's gesture was meant to give back to the institution in line with one of its CSR strategic pillars of education and also in an effort to cement the partnerships between the two organisations.

The bank MD, who was represented by the bank Group Head, South West, Dr. Bimbo Akorede, stated that the development would also assist the polytechnic to add more value to the quality of education of the students of the institution.

The Polaris Bank MD further explained that: "The bank in its efforts to fulfil its CSR mandate in the communities where it operates, has seen many institutions of higher learning being beneficiaries of such gesture in moving the country's tertiary institutions forward.

According to him, "Today, Polaris Bank has over 250 branches that cut across the six geopolitical zones and the 36 state of the federation.

"We pride ourselves in offering excellent customer experience which we do majorly based on our people-friendly service delivery and investment in ICT to ensure that our customers experience seamless transactions in all our touch points.

"Today, in adherence to Sustainable Development Goals, and especially goal number 4-quality education for all and every place or environment we find ourselves-we always like to give back to the society especially for institutions like Kwara State Polytechnic."

Ike added that: "What we are doing today is similar to what we have been doing and more across higher institutions of learning in Nigeria. We are proud to mention one or two we did in Nigeria. We did for University of Maiduguri, University of Ibadan, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTEC) Ogbomoso, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

"In University of Ilorin, we had a partnership on the provision of multi-functional cards to all the students. In 2018, a student of the school won N5million for her educational support, and this we did at Polaris Bank.

"Again, we look at this gesture for the long term benefit, CSR is not just coming to an environment to take profit and be selfish in that environment; we want to give back in our own little way towards the sustainability of the environment and give back to the people and also contribute meaningfully to the planet.

In his response, the Rector of the state Polytechnic, Dr. Abduljimoh Muhammed, commended Polaris Bank for its assistance towards the completion of a befitting Computer Based Centre (CBT) for the institution, and urged the bank to do more to ensure the realisation of the project.