Lagos Lauds Sterling Bank on Environmental Sustainability

In a show of endorsement of Sterling Bank’s sustainability campaign known as Sterling Environmental Makeover (STEM), senior officials of the Lagos state government have paid glowing tributes to the initiative, saying it is in line with the state government’s vision of encouraging residents to show respect for the environment.

Speaking at the inauguration of the mega cleaning exercise, which took place at the Computer Village in Ikeja, recently, a statement quoted Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, to have commended Sterling Bank for its show of commitment to the campaign for a livable environment.

Adejare said: “We need to have more respect for our environment than we do now. The state government cancelled the monthly sanitation exercise because it believed that cleaning the environment should be part of our daily lives and not just a monthly routine.”

The commissioner disclosed that the state government recently introduced the Cleaner Lagos Initiative in a bid to better manage solid waste. He urged participants in the cleaning exercise to extend the practice to their different homes as part of their contribution to the emergence of a cleaner Lagos that is fit for human habitation.

Adejare enjoined residents in Lagos not to block drainages with their refuse but to put them in bags and tie the mouths before leaving them in front of their houses for officials of Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to pick up.

In his welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Mr. Yemi Adeola, disclosed that the STEM programme was being held simultaneously in eight other locations across the country. These include the seven state capitals of Ogun, Oyo, Kwara, Rivers, Enugu, Plateau, Kano and in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

Adeola explained that STEM is the bank’s corporate social responsibility initiative which promotes sanitation and helps to reduce the impact of human activities on the environment with the aim of making planet earth a clean and safe place for all. He added that the STEM programme “covers partnership with waste management agencies in 14 states, planting of trees in Bauchi, Gombe and Plateau to combat desertification and an annual national cleaning exercise.”

He said the phenomenon of global warming which triggers flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes, among other natural disasters can no longer be denied.