Anambra: Christ The King Old Boys splashes N6.6m on members

The Christ the King Old Boys Association, (CKCOBA) Class of 1998 has empowered five of their members with N6.6million to start up businesses or boost the already existing ones.
Each of the beneficiaries smiled home with a cheque of one million, three hundred and thirty thousand naira.
Speaking during the event at premises of Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha, Anambra State, the President of the association, Anietonwa Kingsley Ajulufo, said that their target initially was ten million naira, but they couldn’t achieve hat, so they had to rely on what they realized.
He stated that one of the beneficiaries lost his shop in Lagos and had an accident with his vehicle as well.
In the process, said the president, he lost a lot of money, while the other was battling with health challenge which in the process drained his business capital.
“So we did our empowerment fundraising for five of our classmates We have been doing this for the past seven years since we have been grouped in 2015.The unique thing for this year is that we picked five, which is the maximum so far for the association, previously we picked two or three for empowerment” said the president.
Continuing the president said: “What we do is once you identified with this association that you are in this kind of predicament, we go through your records, we consider three things which is your talent, treasure and time, in whatever case you have contributed to the association determines your eligiblity.
“Anybody that did not contribute his time, talent or treasure, the eligibility of such person will be be questioned, if you don’t give money to the association, all hands are not equal, during election, come out, pick up one leadership position, offer your time to the association, in that way, you are also sacrificing for the association. You can do one thing as an executive or committee member,.There are members here that have not missed our events for the past ten years. There are also our members who lives in this Onitsha but they have not attended our event, so this is our motivating factor”
Earlier in his opening remarks, Ajulufo urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the money by venturing into businesses that yields profit stating that some traders make a lot of profits in foodstuffs business than those in electronics business and advised them to start small, not to wait until it is big.
“There is little things you can venture into that would multiply this money to an unimaginable height within one year or so, there are different avenues to make money, bend down and look inwards, get a good location and everything will take it’s place” the president said.
He challenged them to encourage their hard working wives because :”some of these women can manage businesses very well.
Ajulofo emphasized that the association has set up business advisory committee for the beneficiaries of this year after the association’s findings that some of the previous benefactors went back to square one due to lack of planning.
“So we set up the committee to make sure these beneficiaries know and study the businesses they are going into, so that when they invest the money, they can be able to multiply it,” he said.
He prayed that they would judiciously make use of the money and ensure that it multiplies like the intention of those that contributed it.
The president stated the objective of the association was to see to the welfare of the members and to ensure that every member is stable. “That is why we brought the event of this donation to CKC, our alma mater, so that every member would be aware and make maximum use of this spot” he saud, adding that they equally visit prisons and motherless babies homes.
Ajulofo appreciated every member of CKC 98 set, saying that they were wonderful because they have not disappointed him whenever he called upon them, praying that God would replenish the source of the money they donated for the upliftment of their class mates.
Mr Maxwell Ngige, one of the beneficiaries, commended the association’s president who has been the brain behind the empowerment and prayed God to give him more wisdom to pilot the affairs of the association.
He pledged to put the money to his existing business, noting that it would go a long way in ameliorating his living standard.
One of the members of the association, Rv.Fr Jude Nwora, who is a member of Onitsha Archdiocesan tribunal advised the beneficiaries to put whatever money they received into something meaningful that will yield profit, adding that “Our collective intention is to lift them out from poverty”
On the roles of the church is in ensuring that the vulnerable are taken good care of, stating that the church is the mother of both the rich and the poor.
“The Catholic Church identify with the poor in a special way that she makes the sorrows of the poor her own. Thus the church in Onitsha Archdiocese through the Archbishop Valerian Okeke intends to lift the youth out from poverty by impacting meaningfully and purposeful education of the youths” said Rev. Fr.Nwora.