Why We Launched #InterswitchSPAK – Cherry Eromosele
Digital payments and commerce company, Interswitch on Wednesday, February 21 2018, launched its new CSR initiative called #InterswitchSPAK; a national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) competition for youths in Nigeria.
Speaking at the official unveil, Chief Marketing Officer, Interswitch, Cherry Eromosele, revealed that the core reason why interswitch launched this innovative student oriented initiative is because of the declining quality of education in the country, and its direct impact on the country’s alarming unemployment rate.
According to her, the December figures from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) claimed that more than 15 million people are unemployed in Nigeria. She reiterated that one of the major reasons for this staggering rate of unemployment is that Nigerians are not acquiring the right skills necessary and that Nigerian Students are steadily losing interest in STEM Education due to incessant strikes, lack of funding, unqualified and untrained teachers amongst other things.
She emphasised that parents, teachers, government, students and other stakeholders need help to secure the future of Nigerian students, “at Interswitch, we strongly believe that this project will address the challenges currently being faced by students, teachers, parents and stakeholders and we are extremely confident that we can impact lives and influence the economy positively through this initiative.”
She further cited a recent oxford study which claimed that by 2030 more than half of the world’s jobs would require STEM skills and knowledge.
According to her, Interswitch as a progressive organisation has the interests of the Nigerian student at heart and believes in excellence; which drove the decision to come up with this unique competition that will inspire, challenge, reward and promote STEM Education in Nigeria.
It is believed that this bold initiative by interswitch will set a precedent for other organizations to help Nigerian youths have a better tomorrow and compete favorably with their peers in other parts of the world and most importantly find lasting solutions to the country’s societal and economic problems.
With regards to the SPAK which she explained to be an acronym for Speed Precision, Accuracy, and Knowledge, Cherry made the public understand that the competition is going to be annual, seeking out and support young STEM talents across schools in Nigeria with the intention of stimulating them, their parents, teachers and other stakeholders towards STEM education in Nigeria.
“Again, let me reiterate that Interswitch’s investment in this is premised on the conviction that for our youth to succeed in today’s knowledge based economy; they need to essentially acquire the right skill-set, and their minds need to be re-engineered and reconciled with STEM education in order to not only compete within a job market that is globalised, but to become catalysts for the creation of job markets in themselves,” Cherry added.
The national science competition is set to begin in April 2018 and will feature students from all states of the federation competing in core STEM subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. It is open to students in year 11 and all schools nationwide are encouraged to register their best students in these subjects.
