Longest Marathon Read Aloud: GTBank’s ‘You Read Initiative’ backs Nigerian to break Guinness World Record

As part of her initiative to rekindle interest in reading, ‘You Read Initiative,’ one of the CSR programmes of GTBank launched in 2017 has given support to a 40-year old Nigerian, Olubayode Treasures Olawunmi who is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Read Aloud from various schools in the environ.

Since 2008, Deepak Sharma Bajaan has held the world record in book reading after he read a total of 17 books in 113 hours and 15 minutes.

Now, Olubayode is taking a shot at breaking the world record by reading over 15 Nigerian published books in 120 hours over a period of 6 days at the Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba.

Olubayode Tresures Olawunmi, who hails from Ogun state, started the challenge on Monday, February 26, 2018 at exactly 1;30pm Nigerian time. So far, he has read nine books including Toni Kan’s the Carnivorous City, Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Independence, Leye Adenle’s Easy Motion Tourist, Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday amongst many others.

By March 1, the 3^rd day of his marathon attempt, he had done over 72 hours of reading.

A father of 3, Olawunmi, students from various schools in the environs and 250 readers, were highly celebrated by GTBank at the Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba, which was recently refurbished by the bank.

GTBank has consistently played a 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.