From left: Louisa Ayuba, Coordinator, Chosen Child Orphanage, Lagos, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Starcomms Plc, Maher Qubain and Funke Macaulay, Admin Manager, Heart of Gold, Lagos during the presentation of cheques to beneficiaries of Starcomms 50 Good Causes to mark Nigeria Independence anniversary at the corporate office of Starcomms recently.

Boxer Hero Hails Starcomms Commitment to Boxing Development

Saheed Gbolagade, a young, skilful and very calculating boxer who at the weekend was adjudged the overall best boxer in the Lagos State Hall of Fame Boxing Competition for the month of October has commended Starcomms Plc for its unwavering commitment to the development of boxing in the country.
The competition, which is organised monthly by the Lagos State Boxing Hall of Fame in conjunction with the Lagos State Amateur Boxing Association, is sponsored by Starcomms Plc.
Gbolagade, who is from the M. Pioneer Boxing Club, was ecstatic when his name was mentioned as the latest boxer to join the list of boxers that have been honoured by Starcomms for the display of outstanding boxing talent at the monthly boxing competition.
Speaking shortly after receiving the Starcomms Overall Best Boxer prize at the colourful event, energetic Gbolagade said he was excited to be the October winner of the competition.
He further stated that Starcomms involvement in boxing sponsorship has helped to bring promising boxers like him to limelight, adding that, he is proud to be a winner that is associated with a winning brand.
Continuing, the obviously delighted and rapturous winner of the Starcomms prize said that he was happy that Starcomms has created an avenue where young boxing talents are being discovered, adding that the support of Starcomms for the boxing event should be commended and encouraged by government.
It would be recalled that in the month of August, Kate Peters, a female boxer emerged as the first female winner of the Starcomms overall best boxer prize. Starcomms has for some years sponsored the monthly Lagos State Boxing Hall of Fame Competition, which holds at the Mobolaji Johnson Hall Sports Complex, Rowe Park,Lagos. The event holds on the last Saturday of every month.

STARCOMMS SUPPORTS CARE-GIVING INSTITUTIONS IN 50-GOOD-CAUSES

In fulfillment of its promise, Starcomms Plc, has disbursed funds to the less privileged on the platform of its 50-Good-Causes initiative. This gesture, which benefited orphanages and other care giving institutions in the country, witnessed a general display of appreciation by the beneficiaries who poured encomium on the award winning telecommunications company. The Starcomms 50 Good Causes is a corporate social responsibility programme meant to mark Nigeria at 50 anniversary celebration. In the programme, N50, 000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira) each. Little Saints Orphanage, Precious Pearls Orphanage, Citadel of Grace Mission, Chosen Child Orphanage, Children Living with Cancer Foundation, Heart of Gold Orphanage, Heritage House Orphanage and Pacelli School for Blind were among the first batch who collected their cheques recently. Receiving the cheque on behalf of Little Saints Orphanage, Manager, Funds/Accounts, Bola Olarenwaju described the Starcomms gesture as timely saying, “we are so happy about this gift. It came at the right time when the year is getting to an end and we need money to do a lot of things for the children. We are excited that such gift is coming from a corporate organization.” She said that it is the expectation of the home that such gesture from Starcomms becomes a regular occurrence noting that the management of the home depends on such donations from starcomms to care for the needs of the children. Akinola Kola from Heritage Homes expressed joy that Starcomms responded to the needs of so many homes at the same time without due consideration to the present economic crisis affecting many donor agencies in the world, particularly corporate bodies. “You see, it is a very noble thing for a company to say that they want to give so many homes financial assistance at the same time. And they actually kept their word by gathering us together and then presenting the cheque to us. We are happy about this act of kindness from Starcomms.” The representative of Precious Pearls Orphanage, Happiness Amagwula while appreciating Starcomms said that the money is a timely gift saying that the money will go a long way in putting smiles on the face of the children as the world celebrates during the yuletide. While pleading for more of such assistance from Starcomms, she said that the news of such donations is a thing of joy not only to the management of the home but the children who are direct beneficiaries of such gesture. Also Isibor Titilade, who picked up the cheque of Citadel Grace Mission, said that the children would be very happy to hear the news of the Starcomms donation praying that God continues to prosper Starcomms. Marketing Director, Richard Gill told the beneficiaries that although the donation was meant to mark the 50th independence anniversary of Nigeria, Starcomms would continue to give support to deserving cause like orphanages across the country adding that more beneficiaries are to receive their cheques in the weeks to come. According him, the donation is a demonstration of Starcomms love and commitment to the needs of the less privilege in the society stressing that Starcomms, beyond always look for ways to add value to the lives of its customers is also concern about the needs of other members of the society.

An official of the Lagos State Boxing Hall of Fame, Olufunke Sanni, presenting the Starcomms Overall Best Boxer prize to Saheed Gbolagade of M. Pioneer Boxing Club at the 14th monthly boxing competition organized by the Lagos State Boxing Hall of Fame in conjunction with the Lagos State Amateur Boxing Association and sponsored by Starcomms Plc. The event took place at the Mobolaji Johnson Sport Centre (Rowe Park), Yaba, Lagos.

Managing Director, Procter & Gamble West Africa, Manoj Kumar (L) in a tête-à-tête with Head External Relations, Patricia Obozuwa at a media interactive session on the company’s new investment plan in Nigeria

Starcomms Call-me-back to help Manage Airtime Budget

In its continuous quest to give customers value for their money, and offer them more opportunities to talk, even when they have exhausted their credits, Starcomms Plc has introduced a “call me back” service.
This service will enable Starcomms customers to send messages for a return call to their friends and loved ones in circumstances when they cannot call because of inadequate credit or when they call a number on any network and the person they want to reach is busy. Through other networks congestion To avail themselves this opportunity, Starcomms customers will need to send a “call me back” request to any phone number by dialing *393*phone number#. The receiver will get a message – “Hi, important please call me on 07028******” Back on the phone that initiated the message, an SMS will be received saying: “The operation was successful”
According to Richard Gill, Starcomms Marketing Director the “call me back” service is available to all prepaid customers of the company and it can be sent to phones on all networks to get the desired call-back result. He said the service is most useful when the company’s pre-paid subscribers have no or low credit balances to make a call and also in the cases when the number they are trying to reach is busy or on call waiting, thus saving them the hassle of trying to get through.
“Before we introduce any value-added service to our customers, we in Starcomms take into serious consideration the different scenarios that can occur in the process of telephone usage. We have envisaged a situation when people want to have a conversation but do not have available credit. So we introduced “call me back”. The service will be another salient feature in the already existing great value offers and customer friendly services we have for our customers. Offering them more value for their money, this service will help our budget-conscious subscribers to ask other mobile users to call them any time,” Gill said.
Meanwhile the company introduced the service with necessary control. Call-me-back is available to subscribers only 5 times a day both on-net and cross-net. Any subscriber who has used up their five opportunities in a day will get a message saying:”Sorry, the maximum using time is reached. You cannot use this function”
The service is available on all prepaid customers’ phones with no subscription required. All that is required to access the service is to dial from a Starcomms phone.

Social Responsibility is Procter & Gamble’s Business Goal – Kumar

The Managing Director of Procter & Gamble West Africa, Manoj Kumar has said that the multinational household products company has no other goal than improving lives wherever its products are being distributed. According to him, his company’s approach to corporate social responsibility is different from the way many other corporate organisations view it.
He said this while fielding questions from journalists at a media interactive session which held at Jade Gardens, last weekend, during which he unveiled the plan of the company to build a new manufacturing plant at Agbara to complement its factory in Ibadan.
According to him, in conceptualizing every product, P&G first of all determines the different ways in which the product can touch the lives of the target market population individually. It will then design a programme to ensure that lives and living are actually improved by the distribution of the product.
“What we believe is that our brands should have a purpose of improving lives. Take Pampers for instance. The brand purpose of Pampers is to improve the development of children. So we first define it like that. Then we begin to think of how we can improve the development of children through it. So we begin to talk to mothers, to nurses in the hospital and educate them on how the lives of the children can be improved. So our Pampers Baby Care Hospital Program and Mobile Clinics touch the lives of 1.5 million young Nigerian mothers and their babies annually.”
Kumar also said that the company partners with credible non-governmental organisations in the country to implement some of its CSR initiatives. According to him these NGOs use their own capacities to implement some of the programmes like “Building Futures”, which is an empowerment initiatives for orphanages in the country and the PUR School programme, an initiative that targets children with the provision of safe drinking water.
“In “Building Futures” we adopted orphanages in the country through which we reach about 2500 children. And we donate a year supply of our products and we also give them clothes. We improve their infrastructure by giving them computers and other resources that they need within the orphanages. We carry out this programme in partnership with another NGO – Sponsor-a-Child. We believe that orphanages are one area that has been neglected by the society. So we think we should do something from the corporate point of view. And again, all our brands come together to help and therefore we integrate all our corporate programmes for touching lives of all our consumers into brands programmes,” Kumar said.
Speaking about the proposed production lines at Agbara, Manoj Kumar said that the plant, which will employ over 600 people directly and over 1000 more indirectly at Agbara in Ogun State is part of the company’s resolve to invest 15 billion naira in Nigeria between now and 2015. According to him, the company will install state of the art machinery at Agbara
Mr. Kumar also revealed that P&G has provided jobs for about 1800 people in the country through its general office, factories, distribution channels, logistics and advertising. According to him 95% of all P&G's managers in Nigeria are highly talented Nigerian men and women.
“At P&G, we consider our people to be our biggest asset and in Nigeria we have grown to be leaders in technology transfer and capacity building. We are dedicated to local employee development with a budget of over $1million per year for local and international training and on-the-job coaching. We have created over 120 new successful entrepreneurs with sustained training and marketing support in rural and semi-urban areas over the past 5 years,” he said.