September 21, (THEWILL) – The United Nations (UN) has conferred the Ambassador of Peace award on Mr Augustine Onwumere, the Chief Executive Officer of PWAN Group.
PWAN is an international real estate company and the award was presented during the 7th anniversary of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital on Wednesday, on the heels of the company’s strides in human development.
Onwumere bagged the award alongside his wife, Mrs Jayne Onwumere, a co-founder of the company.
THEWILL reports that the event was organised by the International Association of World Peace Advocates.
The business moguls were honoured for using their enterprise to sustain peace through job creation, which has engaged thousands of youths across different states in Nigeria.
Speaking shortly after the award, Onwumere expressed happiness for the honour done him, noting that it was a call to help humanity more.
According to him, peace is achieved when people, particularly youths are engaged in meaningful enterprise to help them make ends meet, adding that job creation is a way he has been using in fostering peace.
“We started the enterprise in 2012, we are the first company to start marketing real estate and networking and this has taken a lot of youths out of the streets and stopped them from engaging in social vices, making them busy and useful making income which will make them responsible.
“We have opened centres for them to converge and learn, and we believe in taking our profit from real estate and sharing it amongst the youths.
“They say a reward for hard work is more work, I’m hungry for development, even more, hungry than what I have achieved because I have a special calling to help people.
“I’ve made an impact, but I’m now looking for leaders, people who were nobody and climbed from the depth to the level that I have reached by opening centres and training them,” he explained.
Onwumere said that his company has opened about five training centres in Lagos, adding that they have accommodation to enable those outside the state to lodge and receive training for six weeks.
Mrs Onwumere, who equally received an award, said through the company, she has adopted two schools with about five hundred children to take care of, primary schools in Delta State, one is called Enede community primary school, while the other is Obieze Amaka primary school.
“We renovated the school, employed four more teachers that will take care of some subjects.
“We are empowering people to become financially independent, people to build their own homes and also empower people to give back to their communities. We don’t have to wait for the government to do everything in our individual lives, we can contribute too.
“When we did our 10th anniversary, we did boreholes for our community, empowered widows and school children, about five times we have gathered women, not just widows because there are some widows that are more comfortable than those who are not widows.
“We empowered the indigent women with money about N100,000, so that they can start small businesses, and in my local government, I empower about twelve women every month”, Mrs Onuwere disclosed.
