200 communities set to benefit from MTN Foundation’s projects

Following thousands of entries received under its ‘What Can We Do Together’ initiative, MTN Foundation (MTNF) has commenced verification visits to 384 shortlisted communities across the country. The verification visits are targeted towards finally selecting 200 successful communities to be impacted through the programme.

Launched as part of efforts to reach out to more Nigerians, the ‘What Can We Do Together’ campaign, which commenced in September, ended three weeks on October 9, 2015, after a huge number of communities were nominated by Nigerians for MTNF-project siting.

A total of 36,881 nominations were received out of which 384 communities, spread across the six geo-political zones, were selected for verification exercise.

According to Nonny Ugboma, executive secretary, MTN Foundation, so much rigour went into short-listing the potential community project beneficiaries. “Part of the campaign promise of the ‘What Can We Do Together’ initiative is to ensure high-level transparency and communal involvement by carrying the public along through the nomination and selection process, which is what we are doing at the moment. To ensure credibility and fairness in the process, all the 384 project nominators have been contacted to confirm the actual project locations of the nominated communities.”

Two hundred communities in 200 local government areas in the country will benefit from 200 projects across the country and invited nominations from interested parties. The projects interventions under this campaign are: provision of school furniture, boreholes, transformers or household items for orphanages.

Speaking on the high level of participation by Nigerians in the nomination process, Ugboma said, “We at MTNF are indeed pleased with the massive participation of Nigerians in nominating the community of their choice.

It was heart-warming to see the eagerness with which Nigerians are willing to partner with MTNF in its unrelenting commitment to continue to complement government’s efforts in infrastructure development across various communities in the country.

Following the verification visits, we will commence the final selection of 200 beneficiary communities, whilst the roll out of the projects will commence in the month of November.”