Funke Olaode
There is a type of management that begins lengthy earlier than anybody asks for it. It begins at a desk in a public secondary college in Sepeteri the place a toddler with the marks however with out the means decides to maintain going. On Friday, October 16, 2026, that type of management took the centre stage at Sepeteri Town Hall in Saki East Local Government Area of Oyo State as TOMEB Foundation held the 15th version of its Scholarship Award and Lecture.
As a part of the occasion, themed “Education for Impact: Building Tomorrow’s Leaders,” noticed eight students honoured as the theme was mirrored on the event, relatively than as a slogan hung above the stage. The impression of schooling as a poignant device for tomorrow’s leaders was felt throughout as the students had been referred to as ahead to obtain their awards. It is a labour of affection that TOMEB Foundation has sustained locally, with the scheme relationship all the best way again to 2012.
The event was chaired by Dr ‘Bade Adeshina, Chairman of Health Assur Ltd as two Guest Speakers delivered lectures: Professor Y. Ok. Yusuf of the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and Alhaji Bashir Tayo Lawal, FCTI, CNA, a Deputy Director/Tax Controller on the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
Established to advertise points, actions and programmes that can energise people and communities to be economically self-sustaining and environmentally pleasant, TOMEB Foundation strives to help the youth to understand and utilise their potential, be exemplary of their conduct and develop into change brokers within the society. To obtain this, the inspiration employs schooling and enterprise improvement to assist younger individuals overcome boundaries and obtain significant social and private financial targets.
TOMEB Foundation started with a conviction formed by the experiences of its founders, Dr Ahmed ‘Tunde Popoola and his spouse, Mrs Mariam Mojisola Popoola. Familiar with how a lot promise is misplaced when a brilliant youngster attends a public college in need of certified academics and starved of textbooks and laboratories, they set out with a scholarship scheme for sensible college students from indigent houses. Beginning from the 2012/2013 educational session, it was focused on the most delicate level of their education: the three years of senior secondary college.
The scholarship meets the price of uniforms, core textbooks and official charges for all three years offered the college principal studies passable efficiency and conduct via the length. According to the founders, the phrases had been strict: a scholar should be among the many greatest college students in JSS 3, should be indigent and should be of sound character and choice is by written check and oral interview earlier than a committee.
This means the ultimate selection is made anchored on no issue apart from benefit. Despite the founders insisting on the addition of a minimum of two women yearly as a part of inclusion, they’ve nto needed to implement the rule as a result of women saved qualifying on their very own benefit.
At this 12 months’s awards ceremony, the co-founder of the inspiration, an achieved Nigerian Banker, Accountant, Economist, Entreprenuer, Business Executive who sits on the helms of CRC Credit Bureau as its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ahmed Babatunde Popoola popularly recognized as ‘Dr. Tunde Popoola in his opening remarks extolled the virtues of the indigent’s scholar’s resilience. “It is our pleasure to welcome you all to the 15th Scholarship Award and Lecture of TOMEB Foundation. To our chairman for immediately, Dr Bade Adeshina; our visitor lecturers, Professor Y. Ok. Yusuf and Alhaji Bashir Tayo Lawal; our students and their dad and mom; our companions, associates and well-wishers of the Foundation; and everybody gathered right here on the Town Hall, Sepeteri, thanks for taking the time to affix us immediately.
To Dr. Popoola who himself have acquired schooling from one of the best world establishments, impacting lives is one of the best one can provide to humanity notably the much less privileged as a result of schooling is the one liberator from the shackles of poverty. Again, that’s how the chain of poverty is damaged via schooling and a dignifying job.
Speaking…“Fifteen years in the past, my spouse and I started with a easy perception that the place a toddler is born ought to by no means restrict how far they’ll dream. And so, in life we had witnessed, each in our personal journeys and within the communities round us, how a lot expertise goes unnoticed just because a gifted youngster occurred to reach within the unsuitable place on the unsuitable time, with out entry to books, with out a mentor, with out anybody to offer them the quiet assurance that they mattered. TOMEB Foundation grew out of that conviction. What began as a small effort to assist 5 college students throughout three faculties right here in Sepeteri has, over fifteen years, develop into a rising household of greater than 106 students, a lot of whom have since gone on to develop into graduates, working professionals, and mentors themselves to the subsequent era developing behind them.
Dr. Popoola additional expressed pleasure at seeing the evolution that has develop into the lot of students via the years. “When we look back across these fifteen years, the numbers alone tell a story worth pausing on. We have walked with scholars through every academic session since 2012, seen classes as small as five grow into cohorts of twelve, and watched young boys and girls move from the classrooms of Community High School, Muslim Grammar School, and Obalufon Grammar School into universities, polytechnics, and colleges of health technology and colleges of education across this country. We are proud to say that over 80 percent of our scholars have gone on to gain admission into higher institutions, a figure that sits at the very heart of what this scheme set out to achieve. We have seen them return, sometimes in their graduation gowns, sometimes simply with a phone call to say thank you, and those moments have been the truest measure of what this Foundation set out to do. But beyond the certificates and the admission letters lies something harder to put a figure on, the confidence we have watched take root in a child who once doubted whether such a future was even available to someone like them.”
“No one builds a leader alone. This scheme has lasted fifteen years because teachers, parents, panelists and well-wishers kept believing in these children. We are grateful to every one of them. TOMEB Foundation will keep opening doors but it is what you do once you walk through them that will define you.” Dr Popoola, added.
By the 2021/2022 session the Foundation had supported 60 students throughout Community High School, Muslim Grammar School and Obalufon Grammar School in Sepeteri, 32 of which had been women. To measure the success of the scheme, most of the beneficiaries have gone on larger establishments, with 17 larger establishments throughout Nigeria, together with the Federal University of Technology, Minna; University of Abuja; Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho.
Today, the target of the scheme is being achieved and impression felt throughout totally different touchpoints. Apart from over 80 % of TOMEB students having gained admission into larger establishments, the mentoring and training via capacity-building workshops and one-on-one enterprise clinics with skilled practitioners are bearing fruits in a number of proportions. Between 2012 and 2015, the inspiration has represented Nigeria within the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and produced the nation’s studies for 2013 to 2015. In 2015, TOMEB Foundation joined ExxonMobil and Shell to host an empowerment day for final-year college students of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.
Nobody builds leaders alone. Behind each cohort stands an organization of volunteers: panelists who’ve included a retired everlasting secretary and retired principals; coordinators who’ve organised the written exams and interviews and run the programme on the bottom in Sepeteri; sponsors who’ve taken on candidates and useful resource individuals who’ve given their time to the students. The Foundation’s personal file of thanks in its tenth version booklet ran to eighteen names.
Although the awards are given in a single day, the impression runs via years and a long time as leaders are constructed throughout years by academics who nominate their greatest pupils, interviewers who choose them pretty and fogeys who shield their kids’s research time additionally play their half.
The platform for the day was chosen with the theme in thoughts. Dr Adeshina introduced greater than three a long time of expertise in Nigerian finance spanning business and funding banking and pension administration whereas Professor Yusuf has lengthy been a mentor to the Foundation’s founders whereas Alhaji Lawal represents the general public service that retains a nation’s establishments funded and functioning. This represents finance, scholarship and public service: three core areas of nation constructing.
Eight college students from Community High School, Muslim Grammar School and Obalufon Grammar School, Sepeteri, acquired scholarships for the 2026/2027 educational session, made up of 5 women and three boys. They are Oyesola Deborah and Oyesola Dorcas, each from Community High School and Adeleke Aishat, Muftau Aishat, Olayinka Sodiq, Usman Aishat, Sefiu Abdurahman and Muideen Jamiu, all from Muslim Grammar School.
In celebration of 15th version of TOMEB Foundation’s scholarship awards, a number of the previous students have shared how the scholarship has formed their academic journey, private progress, and future aspirations. In his testimony, Abdulazeez Aminu, the primary undergraduate scholarship awardee, of Federal University of Technology, Minna, stated being the primary undergraduate scholarship recipient of TOMEB Foundation is likely one of the greatest milestones in his life to date.
“At a time when the Foundation was known mainly for supporting students at the secondary-school level, having the opportunity to continue my education at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, with TOMEB’s support was both a great privilege and a responsibility. The scholarship meant much more to me than financial support. It relieved a significant part of the financial pressure that came with my university education and allowed me to focus more fully on my studies. More than that, it gave me confidence and motivated me to become more responsible about my education and my future. Knowing that someone believed in me enough to invest in my education made me want to work harder and make the opportunity count,” he stated whereas expressing gratitude to Dr. Popoola and Mrs. Popoola.
Also, Daniel Temiloluwa Oyesola, the 2020/2021 Beneficiary, stated: “Being a beneficiary of the TOMEB Foundation scholarship has been a significant a part of my educational journey. The assist I acquired went past monetary help, it gave me the chance to focus extra on my schooling and pursue my educational targets with confidence.
The scholarship additionally modified my mentality. It taught me to worth alternatives, stay dedicated to my targets, and perceive that my background or challenges shouldn’t decide how far I can go. It motivated me to work tougher, imagine extra in myself, and try for excellence.
Today, as a 400-level scholar of Nutrition and Dietetics at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), I can look again and admire how a lot the assist has contributed to my journey. I’m deeply grateful to TOMEB Foundation for believing in younger individuals like me and investing in our future. I hope that in the future, I may even be able to offer again and positively impression another person’s life, simply as TOMEB Foundation has impacted mine.”
For Edwin Goodluck Emmanuel, the 2025/2026 Beneficiary, the testimony is much more effusive. “I’m deeply grateful to the TOMEB Foundation for the constructive impression they’ve had on my life. Being one of many beneficiaries has been an awesome privilege and has given me assist and alternatives that I really admire.
Your kindness, generosity, and dedication to empowering younger individuals have made a significant distinction in my journey. I sincerely admire all of the efforts and sacrifices you place into altering lives and giving individuals like me hope for a greater future. Thank you, TOMEB Foundation, for believing in me and investing in my future. May God proceed to bless the inspiration and everybody behind it,” he said.
The Foundation has lengthy hoped to hold the scheme past the three Sepeteri faculties to different faculties in Oyo State and in time to different states as a lot as sources permit. In fifteen years of TOMEB Foundation, the largest lesson signifies that management is just not conferred on the finish of an schooling; it’s constructed into it 12 months after 12 months, one scholar at a time.
