RETECH Foundation is a human capital development foundation, established in 2019 in Nigeria. The Foundation focuses on mentorship, scholarship and good citizenship programmes, with the belief that they can use these initiatives to guide and motivate talented children, young people and professionals to strive for success, transform lives, improve the quality of Nigeria’s workforce and make Nigeria a more prosperous and productive nation. It is run by a network of volunteers and its activities are funded by donations from private individuals and corporate organisations.
The Foundation’s mission is to provide a nation-wide mentorship and scholarship programme that provides a comprehensive range of opportunities to allow youths to develop the skills, knowledge and competence required to ensure Nigeria becomes one of the most economically viable nations in the world.
Chair and trustee of the Foundation, Ronye Egborge, on his philosophy behind the philanthropy, notes that scholarship and mentorship impacted his ability to achieve his full potential, and hopes to position RETECH Foundation to provide all its scholars and mentees with the same benefits he was very fortunate to have had.
The RETECH Foundation Mentorship Programme, launched in 2019, has over 35 mentees and over 50 mentors signed up across various disciplines such as Engineering, Medicine, Accountancy, Human Resources, Contracts & Procurement, Agriculture, IT/Telecoms, Supply Chain Management, and Business Leadership & Financial Services.
Through the programme, experienced mentors are assigned to mentees seeking professional qualifications or postgraduate degree qualifications in foreign universities. Discipline-specific guidance is also provided – mentees with interest in farming are assigned mentors to guide them through the first year of setting up their farms, mentees who demonstrate key entrepreneurship skills and who have a viable business plan will be assigned a mentor to guide them through the first year of business set-up, and those who demonstrate key leadership skills and who are at least middle management level in their organisations will be appointed with a mentor who will help them further develop their leadership skills.
Through its Scholarship Programme, the RETECH Foundation provides funding towards education for talented students. These scholarships are administered to students in government/public secondary schools. Since inception of the scholarship programme in 2019, full scholarships covering tuition fees, books, uniform and stationery for the three years of senior secondary school have been awarded to students with outstanding results in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) (taken at the end of junior secondary education) in government schools across the country. The first set of scholarships were awarded to 32 students from 32 government schools across Nigeria. Each student was awarded ₦100,000 each (~$275) to cover their tuition, boarding, books, uniform, sports, extra lesson, utilities and vocational activities. In 2020, 60 students across 6 states were awarded these scholarships, and the Foundation intends to continue to offer these scholarships to the top 10 students in the BECE in more states across the country in 2021.
The RETECH Foundation Good Citizenship Programme helps young people develop the right attitude required for success by taking responsibility for their success and actions, developing the right attitude to work and school, showing respect to authority, teaching staff and classmates, and by learning to help others around them.
RETECH Foundation’s Good Citizenship Programme was kicked off with the Paint Your School Initiative (PYS). The PYS Initiative is designed to enable students participate in the painting of their classrooms, supervised by a painting instructor, teachers, parents, and school alumni representatives, and will be beneficial to the students and their school by promoting values and competencies like responsibility, entrepreneurship and teamwork.
The Initiative was piloted in November 2020 at a secondary school in Nigeria. 50 students volunteered to be part of the day-long event, painting a total of six classrooms. It is set to be expanded to more schools across the country in 2021.
Another plan for 2021 is to launch a number of clubs in the government secondary schools partnered with the Foundation. The RF Book Club will encourage critical thinking and deeper engagement with stories while improving students’ reading and reading comprehension skills. The Green Citizens Club (GCC), based on circular economy principles for resources management, emissions reduction and waste management, aims to increase students’ environmental and social awareness. The Techie Club will improve students’ technology skills by providing training in the use of computers, programming and coding.
Get involved with RETECH by sponsoring their programmes, signing up as a mentor, championing their programmes or volunteering to assist with the implementation of programmes and initiatives across the country. There is no time like the present!
“Mentorship goes a long way in plugging the skills gap between school and work and between work and more work by guiding and supporting people to gain the knowledge and ability they need to succeed in their chosen careers.” – Ronye Egborge, Chair & Trustee, RETECH Foundation
About Parminder Vir OBE
Parminder Vir OBE has dedicated herself to positively impacting and transforming lives through a professional career spanning 40 years in philanthropy, entrepreneurship, film and television production, arts and culture, and investment funding. She is the co-founder of the Support4AfricaSMEs campaign and The African Farmers Stories, launched in 2020. She served as the CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, based in Lagos, Nigeria from April 2014 to April 2019. Prior to joining the Foundation, Parminder has enjoyed a distinguished career as an awarding winning film and television producer and private equity investor in film and media.
