Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in partnership with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), key publicly quoted companies and Dealing Members will be holding the 2nd
edition of the NSE Corporate Challenge. The one-day event which is scheduled to take place in Lagos on Saturday, May 16, 2015 will be a highly competitive and fun-filled 5 kilometre walk, run and
jog competition to promote company pride, teamwork, corporate wellness and to create
awareness for the fight against cancer.
According to the Head of Corporate Services Division at The NSE, Mr. Bola Adeeko, “the NSE
Corporate Challenge is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of the Exchange, aimed
at promoting the health & wellbeing of our operating community.
He said that the idea behind the Corporate Challenge is for responsible organisations and their employees to take part in the initiative as a way of enhancing employee-employer relations and boosting goodwill by bringing all together for fun, fitness and fellowship”.
“This initiative will enhance the concept of volunteerism within participating companies as
proceeds from the competition will be donated to Committee Encouraging Corporate
Philanthropy (CECP), to support the national drive aimed at providing Mobile Cancer Centres
(MCCs) across Nigeria”, Adeeko added.
The CSR Lead at The NSE, Mrs. Cima Sholotan,in her own contribution said that the partnership with CECP was entered into on February 25, 2013 during the commemoration of the International Corporate
Philanthropy Day with the aim of ‘Taking Cancer Prevention to the Grassroots’ . “The goal is to
acquire thirty-seven (37) Mobile Cancer Centres (MCCs), one for each State and the Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja. This takes advantage of the scientific evidence that, one -third of all
cancer cases are preventable, another one-third is curable and the last third can have good
quality of life with appropriate care” she said.
The NSE Corporate Challenge is a professionally organised and volunteer-driven initiative
involving over 400 companies listed on the Exchange and support organisations from the
capital market community. “To achieve this aim, we are working in close partnership with
public and private sector organisations such as Unity Bank, Diamond, Lafarge, Guinness, FCMB,
Caverton, CECP, Channels Television, Silverbird Television, Nigeria Info FM, BusinessDay and
CNBC Africa to mention a few” Sholotan remarked.
Though the challenge will be primarily open to teams of employees from the stockbroking
community and companies listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange, non-commercial
organizations such as Federal, State and Local Governments, Quasi-Governmental
Organizations, Educational Institutions and NGOs will be invited to compete as well.