Orji Uzor Kalu foundation (OUKF) has received an outstanding recognition of “Best Outstanding Innovation & Leadership Award” of the year 2021.
The foundation owned by the Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, representing Abia North Senatorial district was recognized for its Pacesetting and Pathfinder Innovations that continues to Stimulate and Transform MSMEs for Economic Growth, as well as Providing Youth Quality Digital Empowerment.
The award ceremony was convened by Mr. Eberechi Marcus, of Eminent Emerging Entrepreneurs Foundation – a 2-day summit with the theme: “Intervention Vs Innovation, Panacea For Job and Wealth Creation – held Thursday and Friday 11 – 12th November, 2021 at Raw Materials Development Center, Maitama, Abuja.
Kalu, a former Abia State Governor, was represented by the Executive Secretary of the OUK Foundation, Rev. Mrs. Jemimah Ola Kalu. While receiving the award, she, on behalf of Orji Kalu thanked the convener of the award ceremony for honouring the OUK Foundation.
“The Foundation Is Indeed Securing A Brighter Tomorrow. We Are Leaving No One Behind,” Mrs. Kalu said while delivering a speech during the award presentation.
Speaking during the summit, Mrs. Kalu called for urgent attention to be giving to the MSMEs sector to enable the Nigeria youths have a taste of governance.
She said; “Going by the topic, something urgent needs to be done for our country to move forward, because the Youth is our future. The Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu has done enough in the empowerment sector and youth initiative.
“Before he became the senator, the foundation has done enough in empowering the youths, we have what we known as “Orji Uzor Kalu transport loan scheme”, in which we empowered the youths with Sienna buses. In Orji Uzor Kalu foundation, we give so many grants, as far back as 2017, we went round the 104 wards in Abia North and we gave out N20,000 each to people to start small scale enterprises.
“Orji Uzor Kalu foundation didn’t just gave them the money, we went ahead and teach them how to start businesses with the little money we gave them.
“It’s important to say that those that we gave the money are doing well, because we monitor them, after six months, we went and find out and they proudly told us that they’re doing very well. We have also empowered rural women by providing them with machine and palm seedlings.
“In overall, we make sure we monitor them and teach them how to take care of the palm seedlings.
Speaking earlier, the convener of the award, Eberechi Marcus, said the summit was organized to assist people to get business grants directly from the CBN loan scheme. He said because some people don’t asked questions at the right places, they have been mislead, while some have been duped.
He called on the participants of the summit to always come to them whenever they want to apply for a loan scheme to avoid being scammed.
The two day summit which kicked off yesterday was graced by a representative of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), MD of Abuja Enterprise Agency, and Orji Uzor Kalu foundation.
