Mr. Femi Otedola, a philanthropist and one of the richest men in Nigeria donated $14 million which is approximately N5 billion to save the children, a non profit organisation with operations in Nigeria.
The billionaire made the donation on Sunday, November 10, 2019, at a gala in Transcorp Hilton hotel, Abuja which was put together by his daughter Florence Otedola aka DJ Cuppy using her platform- Cuppy Foundation.
This gesture by Otedola is believed to be the single largest individual donation to charity in the history of Nigeria. After his eldest daughter Tolani Otedola announced the donation, he gave a speech in which he said:
“God has been so kind to me in life and I feel highly privileged. The only way I can show my gratitude to Him is to use my resources to support those who are underprivileged. This I intend to do for the rest of my life.”
He called on other wealthy Nigerians to follow his footsteps.
In response to Otedola’s donation, Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save The Children, pledged that every penny out of it would be spent improving the lives of the children affected by insurgency in the northeast. Otedola’s donation will be managed by the Save The Children Fund and will be used to finance various intervention programmes for children in Borno, Adamawa and Katsina.
Aliko Dangote spared no time in supporting his friend as he went ahead to donate the sum of N100 million.
“We have more than 50, 000 orphans in Borno State. We are working so hard to make sure that most of these children are eating well and equally going to school. I will like to support these poor little children in Borno State with the sum N100 million,” Dangote said.