The corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, UBA Foundation, has said the three top winners of this year’s National Essay Competition (NEC) will get educational grants worth N10.5 million to study in any African university of their choice.
The foundation announced that students now have up to October 28, 2022 to send in their entries.
The first prize winner will get a N5 million grant, which represents a significant increase by 40 per cent over last year’s winning prize of N3.5 million grant.
The second and third winners will each get N3 million and N2.5 million educational grants, up from N2.5 million and N2 million given out last year.
Apart from the cash prizes, the writers of the 12 best essays will go home with brand new laptops and other educational tools to help them with their tertiary research work and other studies.
The annual NEC is part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative aimed at promoting literacy and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst senior secondary school students in Nigeria and across the African continent.
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The essay topic for this year is: ”ASUU strikes have often cost Nigerian students time. Advise the Nigerian government on how they can reach an agreement with ASUU to improve tertiary education in the country.”
The foundation encourages Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) pupils across Nigeria to participate in this year’s essay competition.
It said they can submit their entries from their homes or schools through the UBAF NEC digital submission portal.
For ease of submission, students can also walk into any UBA branch across the country and ask that their handwritten essays be scanned and uploaded on the portal for them.
All essays must be handwritten (not typed) and students now have up until October 28, 2022 to upload the scanned copies of their handwritten entries as well as their means of identification on the digital portal as no physical copies will be accepted this year.
The NEC has also been rolled out in other African countries where UBA operates to open the opportunity for more African students.
UBA Foundation embodies the UBA Group’s CSR objectives and seeks to impact positively on societies through several laudable projects and initiatives.
The Foundation, through its Education Pillar, has donated hundreds of thousands of books to students across Africa under the ‘Read Africa’ initiative aimed at encouraging and promoting the reading culture in African youths.