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Teach For Nigeria Graduates Second Cohort Despite the Covid:19 Pandemic
Teach for Nigeria, a non-profit organization with a mission to give all children in Nigeria the opportunity to attain an excellent education, has graduated its second cohort despite the scourge of Coronavirus.
The graduating Fellows showed resilience and passion by dedicating their time and resources towards ensuring that their pupils continued to learn despite the pandemic.
The Group on Saturday, 22nd of August marked the graduation ceremony of the second cohort of its two year Fellowship Program.
These set of 161 fellows, the largest and most diverse cohort so far, will join the Teach For Nigeria’s existing alumni network thereby bringing the number of Alumni to 205.
Inducted in 2018, this set of graduating fellows impacted approximately 9,660 students in 80 schools across Lagos, Ogun, and Kaduna states.
The past two years were spent improving the academic outcomes of students while igniting the love for learning, instilling self-belief and successfully galvanizing parental and community support to aid in the learning process of their students.
Amidst the coronavirus outbreak and school closure, the fellows continued to identify and adopt innovative ways and solutions to ensure that their pupils were not excluded from continued learning.
One of the fellows, Rejoyce Samuel leveraged the use of work packets to ensure that children in her school community continued to learn despite the pandemic while Temitope Ifegbesan and Gideon Ogunfeyinmi launched a project that addresses the parents’ financial inability to cater for their children’s education, feeding and health needs. These Fellows were able to empower mothers in low-income communities.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, Federal Republic of Nigeria, gave the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony; he said “I commend the work the fellows are doing, especially during this pandemic, to ensure that children who lack access to online technologies currently being adopted by private schools can learn during this period.
“These, along with many other accomplishments achieved by the fellows during the fellowship programme have shown us that youth leadership coupled with innovation, cooperation and collaboration can indeed be a panacea to the ills in our educational sector and a key to unlocking the full potential of our teeming youth and, by extension, the great potential of our dear country, Nigeria.”
Gbenga Oyebode, board chairman, Teach For Nigeria, in his opening remarks, said: “I salute the fellows and recognize the efforts that they put in to make their 2 years fellowship impactful, working to ensure that education continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic and in communities that lacked basic amenities.
“They have gone over and beyond to be not just teachers, but also mentors and role models to the children they served. I celebrate the graduating fellows and believe that they will continue to serve as change agents that will continue to champion the movement towards educational equity for all”.
Also speaking at the ceremony, Folawe Omikunle, chief executive officer, Teach For Nigeria said: “The great successes and achievements recorded by this set of Fellows has further entrenched our belief in the power of collective efforts in solving problems.
“In only two years of the Fellowship we have seen Fellows teach children under some extremely challenging conditions, yet they have been dogged, innovative and resourceful.
“This set of Fellows were resolved and committed to changing the narrative not just one classroom at a time but a child at a time.”
The Teach For Nigeria Fellowship is a two year full-time paid commitment, designed to build a movement of leaders across the nation who will work towards eliminating educational inequity in Nigeria by teaching in underserved schools in low-income communities.
From the pilot fellowship program in 2017 where approximately 2700 students were reached, Teach For Nigeria has scaled to provide access to education for approximately 10,000 students in marginalized communities in Lagos, Ogun and Kaduna states.
Teach For Nigeria will continue to work towards its goal of ensuring that about 500 Fellows are placed to serve over 30,000 of Nigeria’s most impoverished students by 2021
Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has awarded a total of N13 million in grants to three standout tech startups at the 2025 Techpreneur Summit held in Lagos, reinforcing its commitment to innovation and inclusive growth among Nigeria’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The winners include: BuyScrap, a digital marketplace for recyclable materials – N6 million; Qiqi Farms, which connects local farmers to hospitality and export markets – N4 million; Eco-Cyclers, a youth-led recycling initiative based in Enugu – N3 million
Alongside the grant awards, DBN also launched a new digital data asset, a first-of-its-kind platform aimed at enabling data-driven decisions within the MSME ecosystem.
The platform offers deep insights into business trends, sector-specific challenges, and growth opportunities—supporting smarter policymaking and targeted investments.
In his keynote address in Lagos, Tony Okpanachi, managing director/ CEO, DBN, described the event’s theme, “CTRL + SHIFT: Tech Empowered Movement for Naija,” as a strategic call to reimagine enterprise development in Nigeria.
“This isn’t just a keyboard shortcut,” he said. “It’s a mindset reset—powered by technology—to build a more inclusive, innovative, and resilient business landscape. From financing to innovation, DBN remains committed to enabling MSMEs to thrive.”
Okpanachi emphasized that the Summit aligns with DBN’s AMPLIFI Strategy, which integrates digital transformation, sustainability, and scalability into its core programs.
He highlighted initiatives such as the Digital Shift Workshops and the Eco-Innovation Challenge as key steps toward embedding innovation in Nigeria’s MSME sector.
Encouraging young innovators, he added: “The future belongs to those bold enough to imagine and build it. DBN is proud to support the ideas that will shape tomorrow.”
A major highlight was the unveiling of the DBN Data Asset—a digital platform designed to provide real-time, evidence-based insights into Nigeria’s MSME landscape.
The platform combines DBN’s proprietary data with external sources like the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to offer a comprehensive view of MSME performance by region and sector.
Jeremy Dan Okayi, DBN’s Head of Strategy, Policy & Innovation, described the platform as: “A reservoir of insight, potential, and direction—built on two years of collaboration and shared vision. This tool will support informed decision-making across the public and private sectors.”
News
FCCPC Shuts France, Belgium, and Italy Visa Centres in Abuja Over Alleged Consumer Rights Violations
In a bold enforcement action, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), supported by the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has sealed off the visa application centres of France, Belgium, and Italy in Abuja over alleged consumer protection breaches and obstruction of regulatory investigations.
The affected centres—located at Mukhtar El-Yakub House in the Central Business District and operated by TLS Contact, a Teleperformance Company—were shut down following reports that they refused to accept formal correspondence from the FCCPC regarding a consumer complaint. The Commission cited further infractions, including obstruction of investigation and alleged assault of its officers during lawful duties.
Speaking to journalists at the scene, Mrs. Boladale Adeyinka, Director of Surveillance and Investigations at the FCCPC, explained: “This is an enforcement operation against TLS. On March 25, 2025, we served them a letter to address a consumer complaint, which they refused to accept. Instead, TLS officers assaulted our team, and in a subsequent visit on June 17, they also allegedly assaulted uniformed police officers.”
Citing Section 33 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), Mrs. Adeyinka emphasized that failure to comply with Commission directives constitutes a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment, fines of up to ₦20 million, or both.
TLS has been ordered to appear before the Commission on June 20, 2025, to provide testimony, submit evidence, and make formal depositions. The company may be held liable for any financial losses suffered by applicants due to the disruption of visa services.
Despite multiple requests for comment, management at TLS Contact declined to respond as of press time.
Adedapo Segun, chief financial officer (CFO), Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), has explained why there is a missing sum of N210 trillion in the company’s audited financial statement spanning from 2017 to 2023.
According to Segun, the missing funds are cash calls requested by joint venture (JV) partners and settlement to the JVs.
He spokeat a session of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Aliyu Wadada.
Segun was responding to an alarm raised by the committee over missing N210 trillion in NNPCL’s audited financial statement.
Recall that Wadada issued a one-week ultimatum to NNPCL to account for the missing N210 trillion.
Reacting, Segun said, “The N103 trillion and N107 trillion are made up of joint venture cash calls that have been requested by the JV operators and JV cash call payments made by NNPCL, which are yet to be reconciled because governance procedures were not done at that time.
“That is why you see the description reflecting those two items would be washed out because they are two sides of the same transaction, which is the cash calls by JV partners and the settlement by NNPCL.”
However, Habu Sadeik, a financial analyst, in a post on X on Thursday, said Segun’s response was unsatisfactory.
Saidik faulted NNPCL’s response about the fund discrepancies, noting that something is not right with the audited financial statement.
“Forget about the senators’ lack of knowledge.
“The CFO’s response is not satisfactory. Are you saying that cash calls worth hundreds of trillions are just appearing on your FS only in 2024 without 31 disclosure?
“If it’s a cash call, why hasn’t the disclosure said so?
“Which cash call is over 100 trillion?
“Something is definitely not right, and I hope they retrospectively correct that FS.
“Someone somewhere did a chef’s work,” he wrote on X.
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