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Tag: UBA Foundation

  • UBA deepens impact with supports for vulnerable communities

    UBA deepens impact with supports for vulnerable communities

    UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has distributed essential materials worth several millions of naira and dollars to various vulnerable communities and other beneficiaries.

    Several items were distributed as sustenance to school students, orphanages, internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, and vulnerable communities across Nigeria and 19 other African nations where the bank operates.

    As part of its Food Bank and Giving Back drive, the bank impacted over 100,000 individuals in the communities with essential items and cash gifts, between November 2025 and January 2026, with the aim of alleviating the financial strain associated with the end of the year and beginning of the new year.

    The distribution underscored the bank’s unwavering commitment to fostering hope, and resilience among individuals living within the communities where it operates.

    In Nigeria for instance, UBA Foundation’s outreach extended to beneficiaries across all the regions of the country, impacting homes, and IDP camps including the Daughter of Mercy Mother of Mary Orphanage Home in Abia; the Trinitarian Foundation for Orphans and the Helpless in Ebonyi; The Destitute Home Okobaba in Lagos; Oyiza Orphanage and Foster Foundation in Oyo; Itsoghena Orphanage Home in Edo; Enoima Children Home in Akwa Ibom; Yekope Orphanage in Kogi; IDP Camps in Niger and Borno; UMCN Orphanage Home in Taraba; Kebbi Children’s Home; and the Orphanage Home in Dutse, Jigawa.

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    In Africa, UBA Foundation’s humanitarian efforts and nutritional support were also replicated in Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, where several hundreds of thousands were also impacted.

    Managing Director, UBA Foundation, Bola Atta visited some of the orphanages including the Destitute Home Okobaba, Lagos where she distributed non-perishable food items and school materials to adults and students alike.

    She emphasised the foundation’s belief in impacting lives all-year round, to create lasting effect and touch the lives of people in all areas, regardless of location and economic barriers.

    She said: “At UBA Foundation, we believe that true development begins with compassion and action. Through our various Food Bank and Giving Back initiatives, we are not only providing nourishment and essential support, but also restoring hope and creating pathways for children and families to learn, grow, and thrive. This is our commitment to Africa: to show up consistently, act responsibly, and leave no community behind.

    “Our various interventions aim to support people by equipping them not only with the right tools but also with the essential nourishment required for cognitive development and physical well-being”.

    The foundation has a long-standing tradition of philanthropy, with numerous initiatives across Africa including the National Essay Competition, The Read Africa Project, Tree Planting for Sustainability, Health Outreaches, Each1 Teach 1, Kindness Connect, Food Bank, and others, aimed at empowering the underprivileged and poverty alleviation.

  • UBA Foundation raises essay prize by N2.25m

    The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Foundation has doubled the prize money for its annual essay competition to N4,500,000 million for the top three winners.

    Managing Director, UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, revealed the increment while announcing the call for entries for the 2018 edition of the competition at the bank’s headquarters in Marina, Lagos, on Monday.

    Ms Atta said the overall best winner would get N2million scholarship grant – up from the previous N1million which would be paid yearly until the student graduates from any university in Africa.

    The second placed would get N1,500,000 as against N750,000, while the third position would get N1 million – twice the N500,000 previous prize money.

    Senior Secondary School pupils across the country have until November 2, 2018 to submit their entries for the essay competition, titled: “What is the biggest environmental issue that your generation will face and how can it be avoided?”

    Ms Atta said the Foundation, which is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc set up the competition to give Nigerian youths opportunity to get educated regardless of their backgrounds, increase their knowledge through reading and research, and improve their writing skills.

  • UBA Foundation, Gavi partner on Africa devt

    Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the UBA Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa Group, have joined together to strengthen health systems and raise awareness of immunisation across Africa, starting in 2018 with Nigeria.

    The UBA Foundation and Gavi will leverage the United Bank for Africa’s network and expertise to invest in Africa’s health system, starting with Nigeria.

    “We are delighted to work with the UBA Foundation to help protect children across Nigeria against some of the world’s deadliest diseases,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi the Vaccine Alliance. “Strong, sustainable health systems are key to ensuring no child misses out on lifesaving vaccines which is why this partnership will make a real difference, reducing child mortality and helping to meet the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030.”

    The partnership with the UBA Foundation aims to raise US$ 1.5 million over the next two years by leveraging UBA’s network of partners to support Gavi’s immunisation programmes in Nigeria. The UBA Foundation will also advocate for immunisation in Nigeria, which has one of the lowest vaccine coverage rates in the world.

    “The United Bank for Africa and the UBA Foundation have been impacting lives positively in Nigeria and across the African continent for several decades, and this is another opportunity to make a difference in the lives of millions of Africans,” said Kennedy Uzoka, UBA Group CEO and Chairman of the UBA Foundation.

    “We are proud of the partnership with Gavi which will run until the end of 2020, with both institutions focused on the overall aim to provide innovative solutions that can increase the capacity of healthcare systems in Nigeria and across Africa.”

    In the last five years over 14 million children in Nigeria have been vaccinated against some of the world’s deadliest diseases with support from Gavi. If Nigeria meets its targets for vaccine coverage, it will be able to prevent at least one million deaths by 2028.

    “However, Nigeria needs to invest more domestic resources in health and immunisation,” said Dr Berkley. “The private sector can be a crucial partner to help leverage expertise and provide new solutions to ensure children across Nigeria have the opportunity to lead long, healthy lives.”

     

  • UBA opens entries for essay contest

    This year, senior secondary school pupils face a slightly different challenge in the UBA Foundation annual essay competition.  They are to write an expository essay, one that can be understood by their grandparents, about how to apply a new innovation or technology.

    If they excel and are among the 12 finalists, they could win scholarship grants and laptop computers.

    The UBA Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of UBA Plc, opened entries for the competition on Tuesday during a press conference held at the bank’s headquarters in Marina Lagos.

    Managing Director of the foundation, Bola Attah, said at the briefing attended by some secondary school pupils and their teachers as well as senior management officers of the bank, that the essay competition was an effort to improve the reading and writing skills of young people.

    She said this year’s topic (Select a popular new technology or application and write an instruction manual for your grandparents on how to use it and how to get the most value out of it) is to challenge the participants’ ability to communicate in simple but understandable language.

    Entries for the competition close October 27 following which the best 12 essayists would be invited to the headquarters to take a second test.

    The top three essayists would get scholarship grant for their university education anywhere in Africa – N1 million for the best; N750,000 for the first runner up and N500,000 for the second runner up.  All 12 finalists would also get laptops.

    Urging secondary pupils to enter for the competition, Mrs Attah said: “If you read you become intelligent over all.  Even if you are in sciences everybody should know how to write.  It is good to hone your skills and learn to be a good writer and reading is a way to get there.”

    Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Ebele Ogbue, counseled the pupils appreciate Nigeria as their country and make her great.

    “As Africans it is important that we learn about your heritage.  Only Africans can really build Africa because they have a stake in a glorious Africa,” he said.

  • UBA Foundation takes Read Africa Initiative to Kenya

    The UBA Foundation has donated over 500 copies of the book, The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma, to Our Lady of Mercy Girls Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya.

    The foundation is part of the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and the donation was made under its “Read Africa Initiative”.

    The initiative, which was launched in 2011 with the aim of encouraging students to improve their vocabulary and communication skills through reading, has been changing the lives of African students across the continent for six years.

    Through the initiative, the UBA Foundation is helping rekindle the dwindling reading culture among African youths as they pursue their education.

    Over a hundred thousand books and educational materials have been donated to various schools across Africa as UBA Foundation continues to traverse the continent, contributing positively to the development of African youths.

    The foundation last week visited Emma High School in Kampala, Uganda before going to Kenya to read to the students at Our Lady of our Mercy School.

    The high school for girls, which was founded in 2008 by Mrs. Angwenyi with just 32 girls, has grown into a student body of over 500 with donations from both private individuals and the Kenyan Ministry of Education.

    The school started off with girls, who were very under-privileged and living in conditions that were not conducive to education. Less than a decade later, some of these students have gone on to universities to pursue their dreams.

    Present at the drive were the CEO of the UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, UBA Kenya MD/CEO Isaac Mwige, the school principle Mrs. Angwenyi and the pupils, who got an opportunity to interact and read with the UBA Executives, sharing their future aspirations and ambitions as they engaged the executives in a Q&A session.

    Atta, told the students that the UBA Foundation was committed to uplifting the lives of the societies within which they operated by creating dynamic educational platforms for future generations on the continent. She also encouraged the students to read voraciously.

    “The pursuit of knowledge should be a lifelong activity that starts at a very young age. You should read all types of books so that you can explore and shape your own narrative,” she said.

    UBA Managing Director/CEO Isaac Mwige further encouraged the students to cultivate an interest in reading not just the academic text books but also material outside of their course work in order to acquire knowledge.

    “Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face,” he added.

    Mrs. Angwenyi thanked the UBA Foundation for its contribution and said it was very timely as the school is placing emphasis on the value of reading not just to prepare for exams but reading to prepare for life.

  • UBA Foundation launches Read Africa in Liberia

    In pursuance of its mission to uplift the lives of the communities in which the United Bank for Africa (UBA) operates, UBA Foundation’s initiative, Read Africa is visiting schools in African countries to encourage young children embrace the culture of reading.

    Read Africa is an initiative of UBA Foundation geared at rekindling the dwindling reading culture amongst African youths. Conceived and introduced in 2011, by the Foundation, the project involves the provision of recommended Literature for junior and senior secondary school students across the African continent.

    This year, the foundation has selected the book The Fisherman by Chigozie Obioma as one of the books that will be distributed to children on the continent. The Fisherman is a tale of four brothers growing up in the 90’s in Akure, Nigeria and the secret that bound them together.

  • UBA Foundation to host mini- marathon for prostate cancer awareness

    UBA Foundation to host mini- marathon for prostate cancer awareness

    UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa Plc, is organising a Mini-Marathon in Lagos to create awareness on prostate cancer.

    The event which is in continuation of its annual prostate cancer awareness initiative is scheduled to hold on Saturday March 23, 2013. The race will commence from the UBA headquarters on Marina , Lagos and terminate via Western Avenue to the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos, where other health and fitness activities and free screening for prostate cancer have been lined up.

    Speaking on this year’s plan, the managing director, UBA Foundation, Ms Ijeoma Aso, said prostate cancer in men is curable if detected early .“We are thus committed to promoting that awareness so that men above the age of 40 can get screened regularly and seek treatment if they test positive.”

    According to her, “there will be free prostate cancer screening at the National Stadium, Lagos immediately after the marathon, for men from age 40. This is billed to take place simultaneously in other centres in Nigeria and other parts of Africa in line with the mandate of the foundation.”

    Apart from the marathon, other activities lined up for the day include, health talks, aerobics and novelty soccer match to make the event an all inclusive family affair for all, including children including family and friends.

  • UBA Foundation flags off essay competition

    Senior Secondary school pupils in Nigeria have an opportunity to win university educational grants if they win the National Essay Competition being organised by UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of UBA Plc.

    The call for entries for the topic: “As an African president, what would your plans be for the educational sector?” will end on November 2.

    Applicants are expected to send in handwritten essay entries of not more than 750 words on the topic, with their complete contact information (name of school and address, residential address, phone number and e-mail) to UBA Foundation in Lagos.

    The top three finalists, who will be selected by a panel of three Nigerian professors, will get educational grants to study in African universities of their choices.

    A statement from the foundation quoted Ms Ijeoma Aso, chief executive officer, UBA Foundation, as saying: “We are excited at hosting this competition again. As with most of our programmes and initiatives, the National Essay Competition is an annual event, and we hope to use this opportunity to again touch the lives of some Nigerian children.”

    A total of N2, 250,000 will be doled out as cash prizes by the Foundation. Apart from laptop gifts, the overall winner, first and second runners up will get N1,000,000, N750,000, N500,000. Last year, Miss Enitan Amodu of International School, University of Lagos, Akoka, emerged the overall winner, with an educational grant of N1 million.

    The essay competition is running concurrently with the Read Africa project of the Foundation, which was flagged off recently by the Kenyan Author Ngugi wa Thiong’o.