Nigerian lender, First Bank, Monday began a whole week devoted to celebrating its corporate responsibility and sustainability (CR&S)initiatives across the country, some African countries where it has subsidiaries and in the United Kingdom. The celebration will last until Friday 29, September, 2017.
The lender in a statement said the theme for the celebration is ‘Promoting Kindness; Putting You First’ and that it would witness the culmination and consolidation of its interventions in social responsibility, promoting random acts of kinds across communities in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria and FirstBank subsidiaries in United
Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa.
The statement noted that the programme is a reflection of FirstBank’s brand promise to always put its customers 
“The CR&S week is specially designed to reignite acts of kindness in our society and the events are tailored towards re-orientating the society along the right values; encouraging the citizenry to intentionally create positive impact in their immediate environment,” the bank explained.
It also said a key aspect of activities for the week has been dubbed the SPARK initiative, which represents Staff Promoting Acts of Random Kindness.
SPARK, the bank said would involve employees giving their time and resources to promote random acts of kindness within their communities, driving welfare through giving and visits to orphanage/less privileged homes and IDPs, adding that the bank would also hold career counseling sessions with secondary school students across the regions which would have staff coordinate impactful sessions that will inculcate financial literacy and inclusion in young students.
It noted that the CR&S Week is the first of its kind in the financial service industry in Nigeria and it would spotlight the Bank’s corporate citizenship interventions to drive positive impact across various communities all in one week. The bank said it was encouraging people everywhere to step out of their comfort zones, perform a random act of
kindness, post a picture and tag FirstBank on social media using the hash tag #FirstBankCRSWeek on Facebook –
facebook.com/firstbankofnigeria; Twitter – @firstbankngr and Instagram – @firstbanknigeria
Folake Ani-Mumuney, the bank’s group head, marketing and corporate communications, said the CRS week was mooted to stimulate a better society with random acts of kindness.
“As an institution, we want to encourage the values of random kindness and we implore Nigerians and indeed everyone to go the extra mile to promote and celebrate kindness this week. Kindness does not have to be
monetary but would always leave us with a better society we can all be proud of,” she said.
