Winners emerge in 2024 Greening Lagos competition

Daniel Anyanonu, Nicole Rapu and Emmanuel Chiemeka, and others emerge as winners of the 2024 Greening Lagos Project.

Daniel won in the 16-18 years category while Nicole and Emmanuel won in the 13-15 years and 10-12 years categories respectively, among others.

The winners were unveiled on Thursday, November 21st by Kudzayi Hove , Project Owner, Green Lagos Initiative and Miriam Adenuga, the Project Coordinator, LUDI at the presentation of cash rewards to them.

Adenuga who doubles as the Project Manager of Greening Lagos Initiative 2024 described the winners as ‘worthy winners ‘ and noted that the competition perfectly fits into Lagos State THEMES + Agenda of Lagos State of a clean and green environment.

According to her, the Greening Lagos competition encourages young ones to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to suggest ideas that can help their communities.

“We are quite quite aware of the fact that the THEMES + Agenda really focused on sustainability and inclusivity by trying to push for community initiative and the idea is for communities to own the project by bringing communities together to solve problems like climate change and make the environment much better that will guarantee community dwellers live a more healthier life,” Mariam said.

Speaking on why this initiative focused on Children, the project owner Kudzayi Hove, noted that children were involved in the initiative to help them understand the importance of a greener environment at a young age, which will prepare them for leadership tomorrow.

“They say children are the leaders of tomorrow, but we feel, why don’t they start leading now? Why do we have to wait till tomorrow? We are talking about sustainability, the idea is for things to live beyond our generation to the next generation, so it’s very important for us to involve them now, if not they are going to be confused about whatever we are leaving for them, so it’s important for them to be part of what is happening now especially towards initiative like this.”

The Greening Lagos Initiative, a project carried out in partnership with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Amayi Foods, MOE+ Art Architecture, The Lekki Bird Club and Lagos Urban Development Initiative aims to address the shortage of green spaces, slow down the detrimental effects of climate change, promote sustainable greening solutions in Lagos, and seeks to encourage young people to devise innovative and cost-effective solutions for greening the city.

While emphasizing the importance of a green environment, Adetayo Okunaiya who represented Lekki Bird Club said a clean environment plays a critical role in sustainability of Lagos State.

He added having gardens across the state would impact positively on the health of the environment and the people

In his contribution, the Head Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting of First City Monument Bank, FCMB, Ominiyi Iyanda said the bank partnered with Greening Lagos Initiative with the objective of recreating a better Nigeria. He added that the youth’s involvement was to prepare them for a better tomorrow.

“With the potential we have seen in them, we strongly believe that Nigeria can be better in their hands and that is why we are giving them the platform”.

The winners and runners-up were presented with cheques.