In a direct response to the declining access to trained educators across Nigeria, The Alternative Bank (AltBank) partnered with the Busayo Ademuyiwa Foundation (BAF) to host the 2025 BAF Teachers’ Conference in Lagos.
The concentrated, one-day intervention was designed to strengthen the capacity of frontline educators. The event delivered hands-on training to hundreds of primary and secondary school teachers drawn from underserved communities across the country.
Nigeria’s education sector sits at a critical inflection point. With over 65% of classrooms in underserved regions lacking access to trained educators or modern teaching tools, the learning crisis represents a structural failure with long-term economic consequences if not adequately addressed.
Rather than focus on policy rhetoric or aspirational targets, the conference tackled hard realities including teacher burnout, mental resilience, classroom innovation on a budget, and digital skill development. Sessions were designed for practicality and replication, enabling attendees to take back immediately usable tools and frameworks to their schools. Specialised workshops on emotional health, low-tech teaching methodologies, and inclusive learning design underscored a broader commitment to both teacher well-being and student outcomes.
“The people who hold up Nigeria’s education system don’t need applause, they need backup,” said Korede Demola-Adeniyi, Executive Director (South) at The Alternative Bank. “We see this platform as critical infrastructure. Equipping a teacher with the right tools and support is the most direct path to long-term national productivity.”
Key stakeholders in attendance included policymakers, school heads, and representatives from Nigeria’s corporate CSR sector, underscoring the convergence between social investment and educational equity. Featured speakers included Comrade Audu Titus Amba, President of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT); Doyinsola Jawando-Adebomehin of Sequoia Span; Anthony Amawe, General Manager of BIC Nigeria; and Dr. Hope Ifeyinwa Nwakwesi, Founder of Almanah Hope Foundation.
The conference aligns with The Alternative Bank’s HEART Strategy, a long-term investment thesis focused on Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Technology. Under this framework, the Bank continues to deploy capital and partnerships into scalable solutions targeting Nigeria’s most underserved sectors.
Beyond its involvement with BAF, AltBank recently co-launched the Women in Tech Scholarship in partnership with Utiva, a nationwide initiative providing digital and business skills to women entrepreneurs in rural and peri-urban communities. The program is already showing early traction in reducing the gender gap in tech participation, while equipping recipients with tools to scale income-generating ventures.
“The challenge in Nigeria’s education sector is execution, not awareness,” said Demola-Adeniyi. “This partnership is part of a broader operational strategy to find the pressure points, inject support where it changes outcomes, and back it with measurable value. Our role is catalytic, not just financial.”
The BAF Teachers’ Conference 2025 represents a proof-of-concept for what targeted ESG-aligned investment can achieve at the grassroots level – blending human capital development, community infrastructure, and financial innovation into one deployable model. As The Alternative Bank expands its footprint, it is actively seeking to scale similar programs in education, climate-smart agriculture, and decentralized renewable energy, all with an eye on investable social impact.
