Barely two years after resigning from office and going abroad, immediate past Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has returned to Nigeria and launched an online thrift-for-charity initiative, The Dash Me Foundation, to care for indigent citizens across the country.
The online store solely funded by the former minister would be mobilising resources for distribution to indigents and vulnerable people in society through grassroots charities.
At the launch of the initiative, Adeosun explained that Dash Me Store would work closely with charitable organisations in the grassroots to ensure that funds and other materials donated via the Dash Me Store get to actual beneficiaries.
The former minister hinted that the idea was to aggregate donations of different kinds for charitable causes to cater for Nigerians irrespective of their fields of endeavour would be enabled to access it through the online store to support the needy in the society.
At the commissioning yesterday, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, said that merging social enterprise to philanthropy with a structure that allows for resource mobilization for charity as well as creates the opportunity for people to earn a living in the process, should be the way to go.
Osinbajo said: “What I think is happening here is that philanthropy is not like it used to be when all you needed was a good and kind heart and you didn’t need to plan or organize as you would a business for-profit”.
According to him, one of the factors responsible for the impactful implementation of the Social Investment Programmes of the Buhari administration over the years is the realization that “you can’t reach Nigerians if you don’t have a plan for the grassroots”.
He said the realization has influenced the structure designed for the SIP and is largely responsible for the successes of the programme (which is now regarded as one of the biggest social welfare schemes in the continent).
“What Kemi and her team have done is to bring the new notion of social enterprise to this project. Philanthropy run with the discipline, attention to detail, and financial prudence of a successful business, and she can do all of that, and I am sure her team is imbibing that, given her background in finance in both the private and public sector.
“The idea of this thrift-for-charity store is brilliant and the first of its kind in Nigeria. It is a unique model which does not just give to the needy in the conventional way of merely handing out donations.
“It is an innovative and structured way of aggregating donations to earn income to transform the lives of the vulnerable and needy while creating jobs in the process.
“I must say that your focus on funding grassroots charities is so crucial and I know that, having campaigned with you on behalf of our party, the APC all around Ogun and in every part of Nigeria, it is clear that you can’t reach Nigeria and Nigerians if you don’t have a plan for the grassroots”, Osinbajo added.
