Philanthropist launches ‘Fund a Library Project’ to put books in schools

Businessman Obinwanne Okeke, through his Invictus Foundation, has unfolded plans to give grants to several schools across the country to fund their libraries. The foundation announced that the project aims to support literacy in Nigeria though the funding of resource-disadvantaged secondary schools in rural areas. The grant, which was original intended to give four schools […]

Businessman Obinwanne Okeke, through his Invictus Foundation, has unfolded plans to give grants to several schools across the country to fund their libraries.

The foundation announced that the project aims to support literacy in Nigeria though the funding of resource-disadvantaged secondary schools in rural areas.

The grant, which was original intended to give four schools N100, 000 to procure books for libraries, has already expanded to six schools and would most likely rise to ten, according to Okeke, CEO of Invictus Group.

“Every other quarter, the Invictus Foundation does something like this,” Mr Okeke, who made the Forbes under 30 list of African entrepreneurs said. “Right from when I was in secondary school, I have always been interested in reading but have discovered I couldn’t access the kinds of books I wanted. And over the course of my travels, I discovered that people are still having the same problems everywhere so I decided to do something about it.”

Okeke, who founded his company some four years ago and was one of two Nigerian entrepreneurs under 30 years to make the Forbes List in 2016, said he decided to engage in literary philanthropy when he realised that the greatest impact one could make in the lives of people is to help build their literacy levels.

Mr. Okeke said as a student studying in Australia, he realised the need to provide books to Africa and started collecting books and shipping them to the continent.

With his return in 2014 and the establishment of his company, he decided to give back by launching the Fund a Library Project.

To apply for the grant, principals or teachers of secondary schools across the country are to write an application of no more than two pages stating a brief background of the school and making a case for the library to be funded. The schools must already have an existing library, photos of which are to be included in the application and emailed to [email protected] on or before October 30th.

Mr. Okeke assured that a diverse panel of distinguished personalities will go through each application and select the most deserving cases.

Winners of the grant will be presented with the cash awards at a ceremony in Abuja.