By Kelechi Mgboji
Assistant Business Editor
Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria (SCIAN) has commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for building for it a multipurpose hall that will enhance the welfare of its members.
SCIAN Chairman, Obioma Ononogbu, said the association is also grateful to the Lagos State government for its contributions to the growth and development of the rehabilitation centre.
“With particular reference to today’s occasion, the relationship started in 2010 when a team from CBN Staff Union visited our centre from a contact made by a friend of the centre,” Ononogbu recounted at the commissioning of the hall in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.
“At that meeting, the team expressed its interest in assisting SCIAN. It wished to have an enduring positive impact on the association and its members.
“We therefore encourage the staff of union of other corporate bodies to emulate this laudable gesture of CBN staff.”
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, represented by his Human Resources Director, Victoria Mojekwu, disclosed that through employees’ personal and individual contributions to the CBN Staff Alms Fund, the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the fund approved the request to build the hall.
Up to N40 million was donated to SCIAN to rent facilities, generate income, and enhance the welfare of its members.
Emefiele disclosed that the CBN Staff Alms Fund was established to address street begging and cater for the destitute in major cities such as Lagos and Abuja.
Other CBN branches later keyed into the project by also establishing a similar fund in their locations.
“This is the result of a request to the Central Bank of Nigeria Staff Alms Fund by the Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria to build a three-bedroom block of flats and a multipurpose hall for their association.
“Upon screening of the proposal by the BOT, it was however agreed that focus should be on the building of a multipurpose hall due to its potential to provide revenue for the association,” Emefiele said.
Contract for the construction of the hall was awarded to Duas Omaa Limited on June 9, 2011 at a cost of N33,486,102.30.
It was recommended that further works be carried out on the external surroundings to address access, parking, aesthetics, and also improve on safety by adding more emergency exits.
“Further works also included sandfilling to address the water-logged areas, landscaping, and drainages.
“This brought the final cost of the project to about N40 million. The project was completed in January 2013 and has been in use since then.”
The Staff Alms Fund was established in 2003 during the tenure of CBN Governor, Joseph Sanusi, “and it gives me great pleasure that we have cause to be here in vivid testimony to the commendable vision of 12 years ago,” Emefiele said.
Five projects completed since its inception are a clinic for Yangoji Koroko Leprosarium, Kwali (Abuja); a clinic at Rehabilitation Home, Ewutu (Lagos); an orphanage for Al-Ansar Orphanage Gwagwalada (Abuja); and the multipurpose hall for SCIAN in Amuwo Odofin (Lagos).
