The CNM Foundation has supported 10 underprivileged children with full tuition payments, learning materials, and specialized eye-care services under its inaugural Back-to-School initiative aimed at widening access to quality education.
The outreach featured an academic excellence award ceremony where three top-performing students received a collective cash prize of N600,000 to encourage scholastic diligence.
The overall best-performing pupil was awarded N300,000, while the first and second runners-up received N200,000 and N100,000, respectively.
Speaking at the event, the Founder and Trustee of the CNM Foundation and Group Chief Executive Officer of the CNM Group, Mrs.Nkiruka Cynthia Ajah, explained that the initiative formalizes a personal philanthropic effort she began eight years ago with a single child.
Ajah noted that before the foundation’s formal registration, she directly covered full annual tuition fees for select indigent children to prevent them from dropping out of school.
She emphasized that the foundation prioritizes educational quality and social impact over prestige, pledging to sustain the initiative as a permanent commitment to community development.
According to Ajah, the foundation’s intervention model rests on three thematic pillars: education, female empowerment targeting girls aged 11 to 19 with vocational and life skills, and vision health.
To deliver on its health mandate, the foundation partnered with Eagle Vision Eye Care to conduct comprehensive ophthalmic examinations for all beneficiaries.
An optometrist with the clinic, Dr. Confidence, advised parents to treat recurring headaches, reading fatigue, and classroom board illegibility as potential visual impairments rather than academic apathy, urging prompt clinical assessments and good nutrition.
Parents and well-wishers commended the foundation’s intervention, noting that the timely educational support relieved families of severe financial strain while motivating the beneficiaries to excel in the upcoming academic session.