BACKED BY GTB’S ‘YOU READ’, 40 YEAR OLD TREASURES OLAWUNMI MOVES TO BREAK GUINNESS WORLD RECORD IN LONGEST MARATHON READ ALOUD

YABA, Lagos, Nigeria – The stage is now set for 40-year old Nigerian, Olubayode Treasures Olawunmi to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Read Aloud.

Olubayode Treasures Olawunmi came into prominence through “You Read”, one of Gtbank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative launched in 2017. Gtbank created the initiative to rekindle waning interest in reading.

The “You Read” Initiative, one of the CSR programmes of GTBank has thrown its full weight behind the 40-year old Nigerian in his quest to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Read Aloud in history.

He is attempting to break the record of 17 books, read in 113 hours, 15 minutes in 2008, by Deepak Sharma Bajaan by reading over 15 Nigerian published books in 120 hours over a period of 6 days at the Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba.

Born in Ogun State, Olubayode Tresures Olawunmi, who is father of three, started the challenge on Monday 26th February, 2018 at exactly 1:30pm Nigerian time.

So far, he has read 9 books including Toni Kan’s the Carnivorous City, Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Independence, Leye Adenle’s Easy Motion Tourist and Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday among others. Today (1st March) is the 3rd day on the journey. He has done over 72 hours of reading.

Meanwhile, the Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba, renovated by Gtbank is now a Mecca of sort, as students from various schools in the environs and 250 readers storm the venue for this ground breaking event.

GTBank has consistently played leading role in Africa’s banking industry. The Bank is regarded by industry watchers as one of the best run financial institutions across its subsidiary countries and serves as a role model within the financial service industry due to its bias for world class corporate governance standards, excellent service quality and innovation.