Babatunde Adejare
Sterling Bank’s pet project known as Sterling Environmental Makeover (STEM) has continued to get endorsements, as senior officials of the Lagos State Government joined in paying tributes to the initiative.
The officials said the scheme is in line with the state government’s vision of encouraging residents to show respect for the environment. Addressing guests at the flag off of the mega cleaning exercise, that also took place simultaneously across 10 states, at the Computer Village in Lagos, last weekend, Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, commended the bank for its outstanding show of commitment to the campaign for a livable environment.
“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,” he said.
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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.
But the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank Plc, Yemi Adeola, explained that STEM is the lender’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 said the phenomenon of global warming which triggers flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes, among other natural disasters can no longer be denied.
“Human activities that lead to the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are dominant influence,” he said.The bank chief observed that cases of flooding, especially the types experienced in urban neighbourhoods in Nigeria during the wet season, were the result of poor sanitation practices and not acts of nature.
Also speaking, Chairman of Ikeja Local Government, Mojeed Babajide, thanked Sterling Bank for the initiative, adding that the local government was very happy to partner with it.He also echoed the commissioner’s plea for refuse to be properly packed for officials of LAWMA to pick them up in a bid to ensure a cleaner Lagos.
Source: G Business
