Two hundred families from the Ebute Metta community were the beneficiaries of relief supplies on Friday, December 12, 2025, courtesy of the Lagos Food Bank Initiative.

In partnership with THX 22 foundation, 22Bet’s charitable arm, the Lagos Food Bank Initiative distributed boxes of food supplies to families in the community as a way of alleviating hunger caused by the country’s economic situation.

The Executive Director of the Lagos Food Bank Initiative, Michael Sunbola, said 22Bet partnered with the Lagos Food Bank Initiative to actualise their corporate social responsibility objectives and to reach out to hundreds of families in the Ebute Metta community.

Sunbola said that it is wrong for the people living in Nigeria’s commercial hub to go hungry, adding that about 60 per cent of people living in Lagos are multidimensionally poor.

“And we are hoping that with this we can put smiles on the faces of these beneficiaries, who in turn, of course, will reach out to their own families.” The people of Ebute Metta are not the only beneficiaries of these relief materials. According to Sunbola, the Lagos Food Bank Initiative works with 170 communities.

He added that the Lagos Food Bank Initiative is also open to collaborating with the government. Fikayo Ogunfuye, Country Director of 22Bet and THX 22 said that the yuletide season is the reason they decided to give back to the people of Ebute Metta.

“We partnered with the Lagos Food Bank and they came up with about 200 people that we’ll be giving out food items to… It’s just a way for us to basically say thank you to everyone, say thank you to the country at home and yeah, people of Lagos State… they’ve accommodated us as a business, they’ve allowed us to be here and for us to run our business successfully.

“And in that vein, we also look at it that there are people that are less privileged that would not have anything to celebrate Christmas, and you know the economy has been really hard. And this is an initiative that we thought would go a long way in enriching lives and making people happy for the end of the year,” he said.

Speaking on why the Ebute Metta community was chosen, Ogunfuye said: “We had looked at areas that really needed support, we know these areas have a lot of underprivileged and unprivileged people, a lot of retirees, a lot of widows and widowers. And we thought it would be best to start from this location.

Definitely in the coming years we will do other parts of Lagos but we had looked at where we had like a a cluster of people and where we could have the highest impact within a short period right.”

The beneficiaries of these relief supplies were appreciative of the gesture, and commended the THX 22 and the Lagos Food Bank Initiative for their efforts at alleviating the economic hardship they face.

Hadijat Salau, a trader, lamented the current economic situation, saying: “The government is putting us through hardship. We buy things worth N100 with N1500. This morning, before I came, I ate food worth N1000, and I didn’t notice that I ate. Before, you could eat food worth N200”

Olubunmi Williams, another beneficiary, who is not a first-time beneficiary of this initiative, said that the initiative has been helpful to her.