Customs Officers’ Wives Affiliation (COWA) has reaffirmed its dedication to empowering border communities via environmental sustainability and women-focused programmes, extending its Inexperienced Border Initiative from Ogun to Lagos and different frontier areas throughout Nigeria.
The initiative, which started with a tree-planting ceremony at Idiroko Border on November 10 and continued with the first-ever Inexperienced Border Day at Seme Border on November 14, goals to advertise local weather consciousness, enhance border sanitation, and help financial empowerment via inexperienced innovation.
Talking on the Seme launch, the COWA nationwide president, Mrs Kikelomo Adeniyi, mentioned the Inexperienced Border Initiative displays the affiliation’s dedication to connecting folks, borders, and the planet via sustainable actions. “We aren’t simply planting bushes or cleansing; we’re igniting a motion of hope, accountability, and transformation that connects our folks, our borders, and our planet,” she mentioned.
Mrs. Adeniyi famous that the programme builds on resolutions from the COWA Inexperienced Borders and Sustainability Summit held earlier in Abuja, the place the affiliation unveiled plans for a COWA Sustainability and Innovation Centre — a hub to advertise local weather training, analysis, and inexperienced entrepreneurship.
“What started in Abuja as an thought has now taken form in Seme. By this initiative, we intention to plant over 5,000 bushes, practice 1,000 girls and youths in recycling and inexperienced enterprise, and arrange solar-powered eco-hubs throughout border communities,” she added.
At each Idiroko and Seme, the occasions featured tree planting, neighborhood clean-ups, and recycling workshops, with lively participation from market girls, border youths, and volunteers. The Chairperson of COWA Ogun I Command, Mrs Fausat Otunla, recommended Mrs Adeniyi for her management, saying her “visionary dedication continues to encourage members throughout the federation.”
The Customs Space Controller of Ogun I Command, Comptroller Godwin Otunla, additionally lauded the initiative as “a platform to advertise welfare and environmental accountability alongside border corridors,” including that it aligns with the Nigeria Customs Service’s efforts to steadiness commerce facilitation, border safety, and sustainability.
Mrs Adeniyi additional disclosed that the Inexperienced Border Initiative shall be showcased globally at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the place COWA will host a Facet Occasion on the Nigerian Pavilion on November 17, 2025, to current Nigeria’s grassroots local weather motion mannequin.
“We’re taking the story of COWA’s Inexperienced Borders Sustainability Initiative to the world. Border communities are usually not solely centres of commerce; they’re additionally frontline environments in want of safety, and Nigerian girls are main this transformation,” she mentioned.
In keeping with her, the Inexperienced Border Day will proceed in different areas — together with Jibia, Illela, Maigatari, Mfum, and Calabar — over the subsequent yr, culminating within the publication of a Nationwide Inexperienced Borders Impression Report and the commissioning of the Sustainability and Innovation Centre throughout COWA’s subsequent nationwide summit.
By this effort, COWA says it isn’t solely selling environmental stewardship but in addition constructing inclusive economies and resilient communities throughout Nigeria’s border areas.
