A large number of Nigeria’s wealthiest business leaders who pledged more than $400 million last year to support victims of terrorist attacks in Nigeria are yet to redeem their pledges.
Last August, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s immediate past President, launched the Victims Support Fund,
an initiative aimed at providing financial and material relief for
individuals who had lost their livelihood as a result of insurgency in
Nigeria over the last few years.
Jonathan promptly inaugurated the
Victims Support Funds Committee and appointed several leading business
moguls such as Nigeria’s richest woman Folorunsho Alakija and multi-millionaires Mohammed Indimi and Abdulsamad Rabiu to the board. Oil tycoon General Theophilus Danjuma was appointed as the chairman of the Committee.
During the launch ceremony of the Fund, Jonathan hosted a glamorous
fundraising dinner at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. The event was
televised on the national broadcaster.
At the dinner, Jonathan, who
personally served as the Master of Ceremony, invited many prominent
business people to make their pledges public.
Many of them pledged huge
sums of money: Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, mobile telecoms billionaire, Mike Adenuga, and Zenith Bank founder, Jim Ovia,
publicly pledged $6.2 million to the Fund. Alakija, Indimi and Rabiu
each pledged $3 million while General Danjuma pledged $10 million. About
$400 million was raised at the end of the evening.
But according to a source at the Victims Relief Fund who requested
anonymity, only General Danjuma has completely fulfilled his pledge. A
few of the Ultra High Net Worth Individuals who pledged huge sums have
partially redeemed their pledges while most of them are yet to even make
a first installment. Less than a quarter of the pledged funds have been
redeemed so far.
Source: Forbes
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