UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has announced the call for entries for the
2016 edition of its annual National Essay Competition.
Ijeoma Aso, the Managing Director/CEO of UBA Foundation, at
the press launch briefing held at the UBA Head Office in Lagos, on Friday,
September 23, 2016, 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 including Holy Child College, International School,
University of Lagos, High Hope Academy, Ojota Senior Secondary Scholl, Caleb
International College, CMS Grammar School and Crescent Secondary School.
Entries for the essay competition opens on September 23,
2016 and will close on November 4, 2016. The essay topic for this
year is "If you were in a position to help the Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs), what would you do?"
Speaking during the media briefing, Ijeoma Aso, said the essay competition provides an opportunity for students in senior secondary schools in Nigeria to win prizes in 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.
Aso explained that the competition is part of the
Foundation's initiative to promote creative and analytical thinking among
senior secondary students in Nigeria and across Africa and is a follow up on
the Foundation’s Read Africa initiative, which promotes reading culture among
students through mentoring and free distribution of Africa literary
classics in secondary schools. The national essay competition is also held in
Ghana and Senegal.
Entries received for the competition will be reviewed by a
distinguished panel of judges made up of professors from reputable Nigerian
Universities, who will then shortlist 12 best essays for further assessment.
A second round of the competition will involve the 12
finalists who will write a second supervised essay from which three best
essays will be selected.
"Three best essays will be selected as the overall winners
from 12 finalists that will emerge from the first round of the competition," said
Ijeoma Aso, Managing Director/CEO, UBA Foundation.
The top three winners of the competition will win
educational grants to study in any African university of their choice.
The Group Head, Media, Charles Aigbe, said the essay competition is one of UBA’s 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. UBA
is Africa’s global bank and we believe that we should give back to the society
and this is an important part of our business culture. Over the years, we have
contributed to the development of education in Nigeria by giving various
grants, endowment chairs and facilities to institutions all over the country," said
Aigbe
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, adding that the competition "is part of the process to
make our younger ones to be better for their families, the nation, continent
and the world as a whole."
The National Essay Competition also runs in some other
African countries including Ghana and Senegal.
As the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the UBA
Group, UBA Foundation is committed to the socio-economic betterment of the
communities in which UBA operates, focusing on development in the areas of
Environment, Education, Economic Empowerment and Special Projects.
UBA foundation remains a role model for other corporate
organizations in Africa. The Foundation has dedicated resources to ensuring
that CSR is not simply conceived as a marketing tool in the corporate world but
as a corporate contribution towards promoting sustainable development in
communities.
2 Comments
I need to share this link with this article with my younger brother, it is gonna be very useful for him. Because he has started to seriously think about pay pay papers. Let's see which option he chooses for himself.
ReplyDeletegood one.
ReplyDelete