UBA Foundation announces entry for essay contest, ups prize by N2.25m

UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has announced the 2018 edition of its yearly National Essay Competition.

Managing Director of the foundation, Bola Atta, who called for entries for interested applicants, disclosed that the foundation has doubled the prize money of the competition to N4.5m for the top three winners.

The competition, targeted at senior secondary school students is organised yearly as part of the Foundation’s education initiative aimed at enhancing the writing skills of students as well as improving their thirst for reading, whilst encouraging healthy and intellectual competition among them.

Unlike the previous years where the top three winners get N1m, N750,000 and N500,000 respectively, this year’s edition the winner will get N2m scholarship grant, the second placed will get N1.5m and the third N1m. The grants would be paid yearly until the student graduates from any university in Africa. Revealing the 2018 title as “What is the Biggest Environmental Issue that Your Generation will Face and How Can it be Avoided and How can it be Solved?” Atta said the senior secondary school pupils across the country have until Friday, November 2, 2018 to submit their entries for the essay competition.

Atta said at the close of the entries, writers of the best 12 essays would be invited to write a second essay under live examination conditions to certify their work.

Noting that education remains one of the foundation’s key initiatives, she added that the competition was initiated to give Nigerian youths opportunity to acquire knowledge irrespective of their backgrounds.

“The national essay competition started not only to allow students fund their education but help them enhance their reading and writing skills. The essay competition is a continuation of the Read Africa initiative. If you read well, you will write well,” she said.

She challenged pupils of Holy Child School, Obalende, and Victoria Island Secondary School who were present at the event to enter the competition and put in essays that could be among the winning entries.