Bet9ja Foundation empowers 65,000 Nigerians in 31 states

No fewer than 65,000 Nigerians have been empowered across 31 states by Bet9ja Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Nigeria’s leading sports betting company, in the last two years.

Ada Cuomo, the current Executive Director (ED) of the foundation, revealed that the foundation was passionate about improving the lives of Nigerians by executing life-changing programs that empower citizens and through providing the necessary infrastructures.

Cuomo pointed out that the foundation has executed 1,8 projects across its five pillars, such as education, healthcare, community infrastructure, youth empowerment and sport, since it began operation two years ago.

Cuomo stated this during an interaction with Journalists at her office in Lagos.

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She said the Foundation has various youth empowerment programs, including the Young Executive Program (YEP) and the Scale-Up Accelerator Program. These programs, she stated, aim to support youth development, entrepreneurship, and job creation.

A breakdown of the benefiting geopolitical zones reveals that the South West has 110 projects, the South-South had 28 projects, while the South-East has 26 projects.

The Executive Director pointed out that the foundation also focuses on education, leadership development, and mentoring through initiatives like the Undergraduate Scholarship Program and the Graduate Employability & Entrepreneurship Summit (GEES).

Cuomo further stressed that the foundation empowerment program was focused on things that would generate income to beneficiaries, noting that in recent years, empowerment training for artisans was organised across Nigeria, after which they were empowered with clippers, hairdryers, sewing machines and many others.

She added that the foundation currently exists and executes programs in thirty-one states within Nigeria, with plans to expand to the remaining states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), soon.

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“What we do is to partner with state governments; NGO’s to know what the people’s needs are and execute them. For example in Benue we execute programs this is the style. We have done many projects in Warri too”, she said.

Speaking further, Cuomo added, “There is a three-year plan to hit all the states, including the FCT, after empowering these people, we will go back to check how far they have gone or are doing to be able to assess them. We have a team specifically for this”.

“What we do is to partner with state governments; NGO’s to know what the people’s needs are, we take them on board and execute these programs. For example, in Benue we execute programs.

“We have given solar power to many communities in Nigeria. Our youth struggle with getting a job; that is why we set up the graduate employability summit”.