“The best time to plant a tree was years ago, the next best time is now.” Bola Atta, chief executive of the UBA Foundation, borrowed that line from Kenyan Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai when she spoke to students at CMS Grammar School in Bariga, Lagos, in early June 2026.
The occasion was World Environment Day, observed each year on June 5 under the United Nations. The Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa, marked it by planting trees at two of the city’s oldest secondary schools: CMS Grammar School and King’s College, Lagos. It was the start of the 2026 round of its Tree Planting for Sustainability Initiative, which now runs in its fourth year across Nigeria.
Why these two schools
The choice was deliberate. CMS Grammar School, founded in 1859, is Nigeria’s oldest secondary school, while King’s College was established in 1909. Atta said the Foundation wanted places where trees would be looked after and left to grow. “We also wanted schools where we know the trees will be maintained and allowed to grow,” she said.
Her aim for the students was blunt. “We want young people to understand that the environment needs help. We want to produce fewer toxins and build more things that will give us oxygen for life,” she said.
The planting came with classroom time. Students joined discussions on waste disposal, water conservation, recycling and energy efficiency, according to ThisDay. The newspaper also reported that teachers and bank officials planted alongside them.
Schools and the bank respond
The Principal of CMS Grammar School, Revd. Jacob Ayokunle Ogunyinka, called the exercise a practical reinforcement of what pupils already learn in class. Magaji Zachariah, Director and Principal of King’s College, thanked the Foundation for picking his school as a beneficiary.
Awele Ajibola, UBA’s Group Chief Risk Officer, framed it as a business matter as well as an environmental one. “Climate change presents real and growing risks, and we recognise our role in driving positive environmental action and sustainable development,” she said.
Around the planting, the bank announced a set of smaller projects: Green Talk sessions across its branches, awareness campaigns, Sustainability Clubs in participating schools and a month-long Green Challenge. UBA also joined the Finance Taskforce for Plastic Action in Nigeria, a group working on plastic pollution.
The timing fits a worry the Independent newspaper raised, that rapid urbanisation has been eating into green space in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and with it come higher temperatures, flooding and worse air. This year’s theme from the UN, “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future,” pointed in the same direction.
Sources
- UBA Foundation marks World Environment Day with green initiative (Guardian Nigeria)
- UBA Foundation Plants Seeds Of Sustainability In Lagos Schools As Climate Concerns Grow (Independent Newspaper Nigeria, Bamidele Ogunwusi)
- How UBA Foundation is Nurturing Environmentally-responsible Champions One Tree at a Time (ThisDay, Chiemelie Ezeobi)
