The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it has spent N70 billion on corporate social responsibility (CSR) across the country.
Its Comptroller-General, Adewale Adeniyi, who disclosed this said the NCS has renovated four classroom blocks, a laboratory block, a staff block, the principal’s lodge and others in Osun State as part of efforts to improve the learning environment and encourage more girls to enrol and remain in school.
He said: ‘Last year our budget for CSR into this was in the region of N70 billion and from there we are able to commit what we have done in this school. You are all products of one school or the other and you don’t want to get to your school and see the level of infrastructural decay we met in this school.’
The NCS also renovated other infrastructure including gatehouse and perimeter fence within the Ife Girls High School, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
At the inauguration, the Comptroller-General of Customs, said the gesture was done under the NCS corporate social responsibility to foster girl-child education.
He said the NCS initiative is anchored on six pillars among which education is one of them, saying ‘We have identified educational facilities all over the country where interventions can help us change the learning environment, improve it and make education attractive for the younger ones.’
He underscored the importance education for girl-child in the 21st century, lamenting the dwindling of enrolment the girls in the school that was established 60 years ago.
He said: ‘It was because of dwindling enrolment, we intervened by rehabilitating this school so that the girl child education will be given the importance which it deserves.’
Earlier, the principal, Mrs Akinremi Iyabo, lauded the NCS for the initiative of renovation and vowed to put effort to ensure that excellence, discipline and good character are upheld in the school.
‘We are grateful for generosity and magnanimous support for the successful completion of this project. This is a great investment in the future of our students and, indeed, in the future of our society.
As a school, we pledge to ensure that these renovated facilities are properly maintained and put to the best possible use. We still continued to encourage our students to take their studies seriously and to uphold discipline, excellence, and good character.’