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The SPARK of kindness that is impacting communities through FirstBank staff initiatives
The SPARK of kindness that is impacting communities through FirstBank staff initiatives
Have you seen the videos on this link: https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/home/impact/crs-week/? Piece of advice: Please hold your handkerchief or make sure there is a good supply of tissue paper while you view.
The initiative that inspired the efforts and results seen in the videos is not a strange one but it has a way of surprisingly leaving people teary-eyed. Viewers tear up as they get to see the positive difference it has made in the lives of ordinary people in communities across Nigeria.
Many people across the country are familiar with SPARK – Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness – an initiative by First Bank of Nigeria Limited, West Africa’s premier banking institution with its impact woven into the fabric of society. SPARK was initiated to spread the message of kindness and inspire people to adopt kindness as a way of life. What many may not know is how much of a kindness revolution the initiative has birthed within FirstBank itself.
What started out in 2017 as a simple effort to reignite acts of kindness in the society through events that could help to reorient people towards the right values, has turned FirstBank itself into a massive kindness enterprise. The management and staff have become part of a giant machinery that constantly generates kindness. Staff of FirstBank are involved in several initiatives informed by their kind heart and disposition. A number of staff run private charities on the side, that help the underprivileged. A number are deeply involved in private charities run by other people. And every staff, by department or directorate, is involved in collective endeavours to make a positive difference with their touch of kindness in poor and challenged communities around them.
Tagged “SPARK Amplification”, the collective endeavours involve each department or directorate within the bank and its staff using an assigned month in the year to collectively identify and fund an impactful project in a challenged community. Executed as an internal initiative under the banner of SPARK, itself a part of the bank’s impactful Employee Volunteering and Giving programme, SPARK Amplification seeks to expand and deepen FirstBank’s involvement in its stakeholders’ communities through integration and institutionalisation of acts of random kindness.
In 2021, at least seven groups, comprising departments and directorates, took turns (in their assigned months) to fund and execute projects of their choice. The bank did not determine or contribute to support any of the projects. Each project was fully funded by the staff of the executing group, and each involved engagement through departmental champions. The projects ranged from visits and donations to the underprivileged, to business support, educational support and construction. In terms of impact or the difference made by the departmental projects, the reactions of the direct beneficiaries speak volumes.
They are only children. So, one must forgive the occupants of Treasure Care Home, Port-Harcourt Children Home and Atunda-Olu School for Physically Challenged in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos respectively, if their best attempt at defining the word “corporate” is no more than a mere description of the men and women of the Corporate Banking Group of FirstBank. Even adults may struggle to do any better when totally overwhelmed by the visits and donations of teams of august visitors from the directorate who came calling in August 2021.
The staff of FirstBank’s Corporate Banking directorate, rather than allowing for unnecessary individualistic efforts and brilliance, aggregated all efforts and thus demonstrated that they understood the multiplied power and impact of corporate efforts. The result was the overflow of food items and other provisions delivered in Abuja and Port Harcourt, and in Lagos, water closets, empowerment training tools, food items and toiletries donated to the physically challenged children.
Even the 356 children in 16 orphanages and a hospice located in 11 cities across the country visited by the E-Business and Retail Products directorate could make a similar mistake if asked to define the concept of e-business. So, there should be a readiness to extend the same forgiveness to them. They were completely overwhelmed by the donation of back-to-school supplies and food items by the directorate. To create a deeper connection, men of the directorate cooked for the children in October 2021.
Demonstrating their full awareness of risks, especially security risks, the staff of the Risk Management directorate elected to construct a perimeter fence and security gate at St. Peters African Church Schools (I and II) in Oke-Aro, Ifo, Ogun State. November 2021 was the month that witnessed this intervention to mitigate against a serious security risk.
December 2021 was the month of the learned minds manning the bank’s Legal Services department. And as expected, they did not disappoint. Knowing the power of education to elevate the mind, to inform and correct, our learned friends channelled their efforts towards visiting the Ikoyi Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, in Lagos, to donate educational materials, tables, chairs and fans to support education of the inmates.
Earlier in 2021, May precisely, staff of the Marketing and Corporate Communications department had donated SPARK-branded umbrellas, tables, chairs and cash in support of small businesses. These small businesses were being run by petty traders around FirstBank head office (Samuel Asabia House) and an annex (Elephant House) in Lagos Island.
Staff of the Compliance department of the bank had chosen educational support as their project. The beneficiaries were students of Gbara Community Secondary School, Jakande, Lagos State. The students received mathematics and English language textbooks – the two compulsory subjects. This intervention was in June 2021. And in September 2021, staff of the Human Capital and Management Development department (HCMD) stormed the Makoko community in Lagos. Widows and aged women were the target. They received a large donation of food items and toiletries from the HCMD team.
The multi-million-naira projects by members of staff of the seven executing directorates and departments saw the staff committing about 10,000 volunteering hours, which value cannot be quantified in monetary terms. The projects directly impacted about 4,500 people across Nigeria’s 6 geopolitical regions. Many more thousands were indirectly impacted by the projects.
While the bank maintains its stance of not contributing to support any of the departmental efforts, it understands the need to spur staff to continue to champion and pursue worthy causes. So, the CEO’s Office matches the value from the directorate with the highest contributions. The November 2021 efforts of the staff of the Risk Management directorate put them in pole position to receive the matching grant, which the directorate will expend in execution of another project in this new year.
Demonstrating a true heart of service to humanity, the executive leadership of all the implementing directorates joined their team members to volunteer in the schools and homes visited.
And as the euphoria of the new year wanes and people begin serious efforts to make a success of 2022, staff of FirstBank are already raring to go. They kick off new rounds of implementing, by department, self-determined and -funded initiatives in underprivileged communities around them.
The Finance directorate will seek to set the tone for other directorates or departments as its staff embark on their own project this February. Technology and Services department will follow in March and give way to Corporate Transformation in April. May will see Customer Experience and Value Management (CEVM) in action.
Staff of Retail and Commercial Banking (Lagos and West) will take their turn in June ahead of Retail and Commercial Banking (North) in July. Then in August, the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CR&S) Week will hold. This is a full week of community-impacting activities funded by the Bank.
Departmental interventions will resume in September with Retail and Commercial Banking (South), followed closely by Internal Audit in October. Staff of Public Sector Group will take over in November while staff of Treasury and Financial Institutions will seek to close the year on a high when they execute their project in December.
The line-up of FirstBank directorates/departments set to take turns in 2022 to execute their own initiated and funded projects looks really promising. Benefitting communities in 2022 are likely to see more robust engagement by FirstBank departmental staff and more impactful projects. For anyone wondering what this could mean, they should endeavour to multiply by any figure above 1 (one) the visible impact of the projects they see in the videos on this link https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/home/impact/crs-week/. They will not see any project in 2022, when the kindness revolution is set to go notches higher, that is less impactful than its 2021 version.
Written by Aniekan Ezekiel
Zacch Adedeji: The Reformist Redefining Nigeria’s Revenue Future Through Action
By: Bashorun Oladapo Sofowora
To dazzle in the Nigerian public service sector, you need more than just doing the extraordinary, you must do what no one has ever done. For Dr. Zacch Adelabu Adedeji, the Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), possessing the heart of Hercules, the fearlessness of Achilles, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, and the hide of a rhinoceros is what made him stand out to become the poster boy of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. Give it to him: highly witty, cerebral, and dutiful. Zacch didn’t earn his current position by fluke; he attained his height with sheer dint of hard work, resilience, self-belief, foresight, and a can-do spirit.
Today, the NRS has been given a new face, the era has changed and the narrative has been rewritten. All thanks to the Oyo State-born outstanding technocrat. Since he assumed office as Executive Chairman, one thing has remained constant; his drive for innovative change and his commitment to ensuring taxpayers are seen as partners in progress rather than foes. Adedeji understands that taxpayers must be treated with dignity and must be made to understand their role as stakeholders, partners in progress and development. This special preference has ensured that tax collection is more simplified, more robust, and more engaging.
When Adedeji assumed the chairmanship of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in September 2023, the agency was less a revenue service and more a leaky sieve. The nation’s tax-to-GDP ratio was an embarrassment, public trust was a phantom, and the treasury gasped for air. But Adedeji, a resounding technocrat with the soul of a warrior looked upon this chaos and saw a canvas. His creed was immediate and uncompromising; more than just words, but action. Within twenty-four months, he has not merely reformed an institution; he has incinerated the old order and birthed a leviathan; the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS). This is the story of a man who taught a nation how to pay its way into sheer prosperity.
Adedeji is armed with the philosophy that taxing the fruit, not the seed, is the way to grow as a nation. When he assumed his current role, he rejected the notion that increasing revenue required burdening struggling businesses. Instead, he focused on plugging leakages and widening the net to ensure all taxable citizens perform their civic obligations for the development of the country. With this philosophy, the results were almost immediate and stunning. In 2023, despite assuming office mid-year, the FIRS collected ₦12.36 trillion, surpassing its target of ₦11.55 trillion. That was just the warm-up act. In 2024, the agency delivered a monumental ₦21.7 trillion a 76% jump against a target of ₦19.7 trillion. Between September 2023 and August 2025, the Service realized a cumulative ₦46 trillion in total tax revenue, representing 115% of combined targets. These were not accidents of the economy; they were the direct results of strategic action carefully played and curated by the Tax Man himself.
Zacch’s exceptional ability to steer Nigeria’s fiscal ship towards stability is akin to a skilful sailor navigating treacherous murky waters, with demonstrable efficiency, culminated in Nigeria reaching a historic milestone of ₦28.2 trillion in revenue in 2025. As the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) sets its sights on 2026 with an ambitious goal of ₦40.7 trillion, the role of technological innovation becomes increasingly vital. Adedeji recognized that overcoming the entrenched “tin bucket” mentality, an overreliance on manual collection methods required deploying advanced, reliable digital tools that minimized human contact, thereby reducing opportunities for corruption and errors. He led the successful automation of over 80% of manual processes through the implementation of the TaxPro-Max platform, which streamlined taxpayer registration, documentation, and filing procedures, significantly reducing processing times. The rollout of the e-invoicing system mandated that corporations with turnovers exceeding ₦5 billion digitize all transactions, thereby eliminating VAT evasion at the source and fostering transparency. Within weeks of deployment, major corporations such as MTN Nigeria, Huawei Technologies Nigeria, and IHS Nigeria had onboarded the system, signaling broad industry acceptance. A notable innovation was the nationwide launch of the USSD code *829#, a groundbreaking service allowing citizens to access tax-related information, file returns, and make payments directly via mobile phones without internet connectivity effectively democratizing tax compliance across all socio-economic strata. These initiatives transformed the Nigeria Revenue Service from a traditionally intimidating enforcement agency into a modern, efficient service platform that emulates leading 21st-century tax collection models.
Building on this foundation, the NRS introduced the Rev360 platform an advanced, integrated, and intelligent ecosystem representing the next phase in the evolution of tax administration. Rev360 embodies the principles of Tax Administration 3.0, characterized by comprehensive automation, real-time analytics, and seamless integration of tax processes within taxpayers’ everyday systems. This strategic shift promises faster processing times, enhanced decision-making capabilities, improved compliance rates, and an overall improved user experience. Taxpayers will benefit from a broader array of interaction options, including digital channels, mobile apps, and self-service portals. The launch of Rev360 aligns with the broader digital transformation strategy under the leadership of Zacch Adedeji PhD, the Executive Chairman of the NRS, whose visionary approach continues to propel innovations in service delivery and institutional strengthening. The platform’s deployment reflects the Service’s unwavering commitment to enhancing institutional capacity, fostering greater taxpayer confidence, and aligning with international best practices and technological standards. Following a successful pilot phase, the phased rollout of Rev360 will begin with Medium and Emerging Taxpayers, representing the first stage of comprehensive nationwide adoption aimed at creating a resilient, transparent and efficient tax system for Nigeria.
To ensure action is taken not by mere words alone, Dr. Adedeji knew that lasting change and stability required a new legal framework and laws guiding tax compliance in the country. This enabled him to lead the charge to dismantle the archaic, colonial-era tax laws that had stifled growth by taxing the poor rather than taxing prosperity. This led to the legislative transformation of laws signed into force in 2025 and effective from the 1st of January 2026: the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (NTA), the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 (NTAA), the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act 2025 (JRBA), and the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2025 (NRSA). These laws harmonized over 60 disparate tax statutes into a single framework to ensure adherence and unification. To prevent controversies and wrong narratives from being peddled by naysayers, Adedeji assured Nigerians that the laws are pro-poor, exempting those earning ₦800,000 or less annually from Personal Income Tax and removing VAT on essential items to protect the most vulnerable.
In a bid to show his wizardry beyond being a brilliant chap, Adedeji led one of the most impressive transition and rebranding processes in the country. He executed the transition from FIRS to NRS with distinct surgical precision, ensuring that operational guidelines were ready and that staff were trained for the new mandate. The transition was so seamless that almost all Nigerians pivoted to the change without struggling. Same brand core values, different name, and a more formidable identity. The rebranding was more than a name change; it represented a paradigm shift from a “Federal” collector to a unified “National” revenue hub, aiming to harmonize collections across all tiers of government to ensure effectiveness, bring relief from multiple taxation, and allow government agencies to focus on their core mandates while leaving revenue collection to the NRS.
Zacch obviously detests wastage; seeing wastage bores him. That is why he reignited the abandoned NRS building, breathing fresh life into it after 30 months in charge. The recently commissioned NRS Headquarters will ensure a lasting legacy, also corroborating the transition from FIRS to NRS. The new edifice is beyond magnificent. The 16-floor, tastefully built structure can pass as the ninth wonder of the world. As a man of style and taste, Zacch ensured the environment was inviting for everyone who comes in for any tax-related transaction. The three-tower complex is a world-class edifice designed to house 3,000 staff, complete with a data processing center, a clinic, an auditorium, and a gym. It is indeed a jaw-dropping building equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to ensure seamless navigation and maximum output.
At the opening ceremony on the 14th of April, Adedeji paid tribute to President Tinubu, declaring him “the greatest gift bestowed on this republic.” He noted that the headquarters symbolizes that reform is “not abstract, but real; not theoretical, but implemented.” The auspicious event was attended by the Senate President, the Speaker of the House, and numerous governors, signaling rare political consensus on the importance of revenue reform. For the building commissioning, Zacch can be called a jinx breaker and a record setter. Calling him both places him on a pedestal of immortality.
Zacch Adelabu Adedeji has answered the question posed by his own mantra: “More than just words, but action.” He has taken a bureaucracy often viewed with suspicion and turned it into the vanguard of economic renewal. From the digits of ₦46 trillion in revenue to the concrete of a 16-story headquarters, from the virtual code *829# to the legal text of the NRS Act, Adedeji has left no room for doubt. Indeed, he has outdone himself, leaving a lacuna that anyone after him might struggle to fill.
He did not merely build an institution that demands taxes; he built one that enables prosperity. As Nigeria marches toward a future of fiscal self-sufficiency, it does so on the solid foundation of actions taken by a quiet, determined reformer who proved that in governance, what you do will always speak louder than what you say. As the sun sets, and birds chirping over the new NRS headquarters, casting long shadows across the skylines of Abuja, one fact remains indisputable: in the battle for Nigeria’s economic soul, words have failed, long speeches have faded into oblivion, but Zacch Adelabu Adedeji brought action infused with a monument. The era of talk is over, the era of the Alchemist has just begun.
Blue Lagos Launches Community Sensitisation and Engagement Campaign in Riverine Areas
Blue Lagos has officially commenced its community sensitisation and engagement campaign across riverine and coastal communities in Lagos State.
The initiative is designed to amplify the voices of underserved communities, raise awareness on civic responsibilities, and highlight the unique challenges faced by residents living along the waterways.
Through on-ground interactions and digital advocacy, Blue Lagos aims to foster inclusive participation and ensure that no community is left behind.
Speaking on the campaign, The Director of Mobilisation & Community Engagement for the Blue Lagos Team, Hon. Ashade Abdul-Salam emphasized the importance of engaging directly with residents to better understand their daily realities, from access to basic services and transportation challenges to opportunities for development and improved governance.
The campaign will feature community visits, short sensitisation videos, interactive sessions, and stakeholder engagement, all geared towards empowering residents with the knowledge and tools to actively participate in shaping their future.
Blue Lagos calls on riverine and coastal residents to take advantage of this initiative, share their experiences, and stay informed on civic processes, including voter registration and community development programs.
This campaign marks a significant step towards building stronger connections between communities and decision-makers, while promoting inclusive growth across Lagos State.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Blue Lagos Team via email: [email protected]
One Universe Launches to Redefine How People Find and Pay for Trusted Services
One Universe, a new trusted digital marketplace designed to connect people who need services with skilled professionals, has officially launched and is now available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Built to solve the everyday challenge of finding reliable service providers, One Universe brings trust, convenience, and transparency into one seamless platform. From beauty and lifestyle services to technical, creative, and professional support, users can now discover verified professionals, agree on terms, and complete payments securely – all within the app.
A Safer, Smarter Way to Get Things Done
One Universe was created to eliminate uncertainty in service transactions. The platform enables buyers to find professionals, chat directly, agree on pricing and timelines, and make payments securely. Funds are held safely until the job is completed, ensuring protection for both parties.
Empowering Professionals to Grow
For service providers, One Universe offers a powerful opportunity to showcase skills, receive referrals, build credibility through reviews, and access more customers without the usual barriers. Professionals can focus on delivering quality work while the platform supports visibility, trust, and secure payments.
Introducing the One Universe Recruiter Program
As part of its launch, One Universe is rolling out the Recruiter Program, designed to reward individuals who help grow the community. Recruiters earn incentives by inviting people to join the platform – especially buyers seeking services – thereby helping professionals get more jobs while expanding the ecosystem. The program turns everyday referrals into real value and shared growth for all participants.
Key Features Include:
• Verified professionals across multiple service categories
• Secure in-app payments with buyer and seller protection
• Transparent pricing and direct communication
• Ratings and reviews to build trust
• A growing community driven by referrals and reputation
• Incentives through the Recruiter Program for community growth
*Now Available on iOS and Android*
One Universe is now live and ready for use. Individuals and businesses are encouraged to download the app, explore services, and experience a smarter way to connect and transact.
Download One Universe today:
Apple App Store
https://apps.apple.com/au/app/one-universe/id6753012310
Google Play Store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oneuniverse.oneuniverse
About One Universe
One Universe is a trusted digital marketplace built to connect people with skilled professionals, making service discovery, engagement, and payment simple, safe, and reliable. The platform is committed to empowering service providers while giving users confidence and peace of mind.
Media Contact:
www.oneuniverse.ng
08083327368
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