Sterling One Foundation was established in 2018 by Sterling Bank Plc as a vehicle to drive positive social impact across critical sectors in the economy. Its Chief Executive, Mrs. Olapeju Ibekwe, says the Foundation’s stakeholder-driven interventions have so far directly impacted about 300, 000 beneficiaries, with nearly four million indirect beneficiaries. She also shed light on its interventions in its five critical areas of health, youth development and education, food security, gender equality & women empowerment, and climate action. DANIEL ESSIET reports.
Her efficient and sustainable approach to empowering people is her competitive edge in the social entrepreneurial space. Indeed, unlike other social entrepreneurs, who are passionate about helping or empowering people around them, sustainability professional and Chief Executive, Sterling One Foundation, a vehicle for positive social impact across critical sectors in the economy, Mrs. Olapeju Ibekwe, is more passionate about doing it in a systematic and sustainable way.
“My philosophy is simple. When I find a problem, I first don’t just seek to solve it on the surface, but I work to find the root causes and move to create an opportunity to solve them from there alongside the people it affects, so that they are empowered enough to not only help themselves, but help others,” Olapeju, who is a seasoned business leader with keen interests in women empowerment, access to quality education, access to healthcare and youth development, told The Nation.
Sterling One Foundation, which Olapeju leads in championing social transformation in Nigeria, was established in 2018 by Sterling Bank Plc., to tackle the root causes of poverty. However, the Foundation has a separate board of trustees and has since prioritized social impact investments across critical sectors for maximum impact.
The Foundation, which is driven by the unique challenges facing millions of Nigerians and other Africans, has been contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), harnessing demographic dividends and improving the lives of people in under-served communities.
Olapeju has since brought her systematic and sustainable way of empowering people in under-served communities to bear on the Foundation’s social transformation agenda. For instance, through its innovative programs and integrated approach, Sterling One Foundation has been engaging in stakeholder driven interventions that are geared towards socio-economic development, wealth creation, employability, sustainability and national development.
The Foundation has been transforming the lives of hundreds of women and men, to create Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to help those living in the villages to generate livelihood opportunities and to improve their employable skills through income generation programmes. Its approach to work where it prioritizes ecosystem partnerships has made the impact of its contributions far-reaching. In the past five and a half years, for instance, it has been able to drive progress in every state in Nigeria, as well as some African countries.
Olapeju, who holds a B.Sc in Mass Communication, from the University of Lagos and Masters in Public and International Affairs, specifically said the Foundation’s evaluation numbers place its direct impact at about 300, 000 beneficiaries, with nearly four million more indirect beneficiaries, who are majorly relatives of its direct beneficiaries, their employees, community members benefiting from their newly acquired skills and beneficiaries of other nonprofits who the Foundation supports.
She explained that since inception, the Foundation’s work has been focused on five critical areas – health, youth development and education, food security, gender equality & women empowerment, and climate action. She added that in each of these areas, the Foundation has implemented key projects that beyond driving community development, strived to empower people directly.
“For instance, our Beach Adoption Project through which we collect and recycle waste in coastal communities is not only focused on cleaning up communities, but turning youths and women in those communities into waste collectors and having an alternative income source benefitting from the circular economy,” she said, noting that under gender equality, “we continue to mainstream solutions to tackle gender-based violence, as we see it as a major hurdle many women have to scale to achieve their goals.”
According to Olapeju, the Foundation does this by leveraging entertainment so as to gradually change the culture of shame that is attributed to gender-based violence. “In the coming years, our goal is to deepen the impact we’ve created and to fashion out more projects and pathways for people to have better live,” she said.
She added that the Foundation has also already expanded its climate action portfolio to include an agro-forestry component that will see it plant 10, 000 trees by the end of 2023 and over one million trees by 2030, all in our bid to restore biodiversity and tackle climate change.
Under food security, Olapeju said the Foundation is also working with farmer clusters to provide inputs, high yield crops and financing to boost their production and yield, thus reducing food scarcity in view of the food security challenges faced by Nigeria and the continent. Same for education, where, according to her, the Foundation has intentionally prioritized early learning and teacher capacity building, while also strategically widening its net to reach more age groups with different solutions that meet their development needs.
Health is also not left out. Olapeju words: “Our approach in health still has elements of our education component as we are prioritizing capacity building of health care workers in a way that it improves the efficiency of the primary health centres which serves the bulk of the Nigerian populace. Our overall goal by the end of the year is to have a direct positive impact in the lives of one million beneficiaries.”
In doing all of these, a key part of Olapeju’s strategy is to identify leaders in organisations to help her gain entry into their communities. Together with influential leaders, she has been able establish an active network through her organisation that brings people with progressive views together to strengthen the cause of entrepreneurship and to improve daily lives of Nigerians.
Unsurprisingly, the strategy has worked magic, literarily. “From the children whose fees we pay to ensure they have access to quality education and the girls we are giving supplementary Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) education to the young people who we’re working with our partners to equip with skills and start-up funding, we are making the sort of investments that put people in a good place to be pulled out of poverty and pull others out of poverty,” Olapeju said.
The social entrepreneur pointed out that the ripple effect of the Foundation’s work has indirectly brought her childhood dreams to reality because “as a child, I dreamt of being a lawyer so that I could help a lot of people get justice and be treated fairly. Today, the work I lead at Sterling One Foundation drives equity and a better living standard for millions of people, and that brings me an unexplainable sense of fulfillment.”
Effortlessly beautiful and hardworking, it is easy to see how Olapeju draws inspiration and strength for her inspiring passion to tough lives positively. Her words: “Every day, I listen to stories of people living in conditions that no one should be living in. Doing that on a daily basis changes things about you even if you don’t consciously notice, and that’s been my story.
“While I’d say I’ve always been passionate about helping those around me, I’ve become more passionate about doing it in a systematic way. Thankfully, leading the Sterling One Foundation has placed me in the driver’s seat and given me a very good chance to do that, and so far, we have done well but there is still a lot to be done.”
In all she has done to change the dynamics in entrepreneurship, social change and poverty alleviation, Olapeju has never stopped telling whoever cares to listen her guiding principle. “There’s an age-long saying that ‘if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’ This, for me, has been a guiding principle in the way I think, operate, and work to drive development,” she stated.
Olapeju emphasized that in a country like Nigeria where there are too many people to help and very few resources, “I have found one of the most important tasks to be empowering more people to the point where they are able to help others as a more efficient and sustainable approach.”
In line with the Foundation’s empowerment programme, it has been working with the Federal Government Jubilee Fellowship Programme, which aims to place 20, 000 young Nigerian graduates annually into paid one-year opportunities within private and public sector organisations across the country.
A key component of the programme, The Nation learnt, is its focus on finding the most qualified talents through a transparent process and matching them with host organisations where they can be most impactful and grow.
Expectedly, Sterling One Foundation’s sterling accomplishments in the social entrepreneurial space haven’t gone unnoticed and unrecognized. For instance, the Foundation has been shortlisted for different awards, including becoming the pioneer winner of the ECOSEA Award for Most Outstanding Foundation in Environmental Sustainability.
Olapeju also received the Leadership Impact Award in Non-profit Management at the CSR Reporters Philanthropic Awards 2022 on Social Impact and Sustainability Practices. She was recognized for her exemplary role in leading Sterling One Foundation to champion social transformation in Nigeria.
With nearly two decades of corporate experience, Olapeju has built expertise in brand and marketing communications, strategy formulation and execution, team management, process improvement, strategic partnerships, business expansion and stakeholder management.
Currently, she oversees all operations and initiatives at Sterling One Foundation, a social change vehicle to tackle the root causes of poverty in Nigeria. Under this non-profit, she works with and supports various non-profits across the African continent in capacity building, alternative financing and amplifying impact. She also works with the private and public sector in their social impact initiatives.
Before now, Olapeju worked in the media as a broadcaster and at Sterling Bank where she supported the marketing activities of the Corporate and Investment Banking team and led the social investment portfolio of the bank, helping it become the most socially responsible corporate organisation in Nigeria as awarded by the Great Place to Work Institute, Nigeria (GPTW).
She also sits on the board of the One Health Initiative where she helps shape impactful policies and initiatives for medical practitioners and everyday Nigerians seeking better healthcare.