UBA Foundation opens entries for national essay competition
UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has announced the opening of entries for the 2015 edition of its annual National Essay Competition.
Speaking at a media briefing yesterday in Lagos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBA Foundation Ms. Ijeoma Aso, announced that the Foundation will start receiving entries from eligible participants in senior secondary schools in Nigeria.
The briefing was attended by students from different secondary schools in Lagos.
Entries for the essay competition opened on September 30, 2015 and will close on November 13, 2015. The essay topic for this year, according to Aso, is “What Matters Most To You in Life and Why.”
Aso said the essay competition provides an opportunity for students in senior secondary schools in Nigeria to win prizes in the form of educational grants.
The first prize for the UBA National essay competition is a N1 million educational grant for the winner to study in any African university of his or her choice. The second and third prizes are N750,000 and N500,000 educational grants respectively.
Ms. Aso explained
that the competition is part of the Foundation’s initiative to promote creative and analytical thinking in senior secondary students in Nigeria and a follow-up on the Foundation’s Read Africa initiative, which promotes reading culture among students through the reading and free distribution of Africa literary classics in secondary schools. The national essay competition is also held Ghana and Senegal.
The top three winners of the competition will win educational grants to study in any African university of their choice.
The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBA Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, represented by Mr. Emeke Iweriebor, Deputy CEO, UBA Africa, said the essay competition is UBA’s modest contribution to educational development in Nigeria and across Africa.
“As a pan-African financial services group with operations in 22 countries, we aim to impact on the countries we do business through the three main anchors of education, environment and social empowerment.”
He urged students to take the national essay competition seriously as it provides a massive opportunity for them to change their lives for the better. He also dared students to dream big and read and write extensively.