The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Benue students

  • How Benue students won 2024 Enactus contest

    How Benue students won 2024 Enactus contest

    By Abike Sanusi 

    The  Enactus team of  Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Markurdi (formerly University of Agriculture, Makurdi) has won the Enactus Nigeria 2024 National Competition with its outstanding innovative solution, ECORESIN. The grand finale took place in Lagos.

    ECORESIN is a project committed to providing a sustainable solution to the plastic waste crisis. Through the project, the team developed biodegradable polymers using agricultural and plant-based materials such as cassava and water hyacinth. These polymers are used to produce various everyday items, from shopping bags to seedling wrappers and packaging for foods, care products, and pharmaceutical products. The biodegradable polymers are designed to disappear back into nature without leaving any harmful traces. They can be converted into fertilizer through decomposition, promoting sustainable farming.

    Enactus Nigeria, a non-governmental and non-profit organisation is  committed to preparing young Nigerians in  tertiary institutions for future leadership, workplace management, job creation, skill acquisition for global business competitiveness.

    Enactus Nigeria also gave out awards and cash prizes to other deserving tertiary institutions that participated with their innovative solutions they created in their communities in the special competition category for both the ACT Foundation Leadership Challenge and the Schneider Electric Battery Innovation Challenge.

    It aims to transform youths into resourceful, purposeful, and value-driven entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators, while making  significant impact by engaging the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders to be innovative and  improve the world.

     Enactus Nigeria Country Director, Michael Ajayi said: “This competition is a showcase of the ingenuity and the outcome over 12 months of hard work by the Enactus Students. It brings together Enactus student leaders and academic leaders from over 20 tertiary institutions, as well as business leaders for the celebration of innovation and impact.

    “One of the interesting things about the national competition is that it’s an expression of students’ ingenuity, creativity, and doggedness and all of that. It is also a reflection of the amount of work that Enactus Nigeria has done in recruiting the students and training them in a bid to build their capacity.

    Read Also: Benue students demand end to ASUU strike

    “At the final round, we had judges who are business leaders from different organisations like KPMG, Chevron Nigeria, Schneider Electric Foundation, African Capital Alliance, Coca Cola and the rest of them. These judges reviewed the presentations and ranked the four teams based on their performance, which must be the most relevant, innovative, scalable, impactful project, social enterprise that can transform the life of people across the country. Once the judges identified that team, we named that team number one, the team now becomes, Enactus Nigeria National Champion for 2024.”

     The winners   will get the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the Enactus World Cup, which holds in different countries every year. This year, it will hold in Kazakhstan, in the city of Astana.

     Ajayi added that the  programme is structured to transform Nigerian students into resourceful, purposeful and value driven entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. 

    “We are able to achieve this because of the structure we have put in place. On each campus where we are active, we recruit a group of students from different departments, different faculties, different levels, and backgrounds. Successful candidates are inducted into the Enactus,” he added.

  • Benue to pay WAEC fees for students in public schools

    Benue to pay WAEC fees for students in public schools

    The Benue State Government has unfolded plans to pay Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) registration fees for  students in government-established schools.

    Commissioner for Education and Knowledge Management, Rev. Frederick Ikyaan, said this during a meeting with Principals of Post-Primary Schools, Area Education Officers and other stakeholders in the education sector in Makurdi, the state capital.

    Rev. Ikyaan announced that Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia administration will pay the registration fees for final year students of only Government Secondary Schools (GSS’s), in the state.

    He cautioned the principals against engaging in unethical practices such as illegal admission of students in the name taking undue advantage of the good gesture that the state government is offering.

    Read Also: How Wigwe’s aide escaped death

    According to the governor’s Principal Print Media Assistant to the governor, Donald Kumun, the commissioner  instructed all the principals of post primary schools not to collect money from students for such registration, unless approvals that would come from the ministry.

    The Commissioner called on parents of benefited students to encourage their children to study hard to compliment the efforts of the state government, so as not to see it as a wasted opportunity.

    The Director General, Benue State Education Quality Assurance Agency (BEQA), Dr. Terna Francis, thanked the commissioner for bringing innovations in the education sector that are already yielding positive results, saying that, the agency under him is aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning in the state, and warned against examination malpractice and other vices in the sector.

    The Executive Secretary, Benue State Teaching Service Board (TSB), Mr. Tsea Ahule, also thanked the commissioner for the meeting with heads of the institutions, as well as administrators in the education sector, and called on the principals to always seek approvals from the board before taking any action in their respective schools.