More Schools benefit from UBA's Read Africa initiative.

In continuation of UBA's Read Africa  initiative, some schools in Nigeria recently benefited. Students of Immaculate Conception College (ICC), Benin, Edo State, on December 9, 2013 joined the list of schools that have hosted the one day reading sessions.  

Joan Abolo, Regional Bank Head (RBH), led other members of staff to the event, held at the school’s premises and attended by students and members of the school community, including the School's governing council and members of the Parent Teachers' Association (PTA).

Speaking at the event, the RBH said “The Read Africa Initiative is UBA’s modest contribution to reversing   the dwindling reading culture in African children.”

Mike Obadan, a Professor of Economics at the University of Benin and In-house consultant to the National Institute for Legislative Studies, for the National Assembly Abuja, and Chairman of the Foundation for Education and Development (FED) Benin City, who was the mentor of the day, commending UBA Foundation for the initiative, while calling on the students to imbibe a reading culture.  He said, "reading leads to self fulfillment and is an important tool to acquire formal education."

Copies of the literary classic "Things Fall Apart" by the Late Nigerian novelist, poet and professor, Chinua Achebe were distributed to the students.

Rev.Fr Cyril Ofoegbu, Principal of ICC, thanked UBA Foundation for choosing the school to host the event.  He promised that the school and students were appreciative of the UBA Plc initiative, noting this was the first time in seven years that the school has benefited from such a gesture. 

Also in Osun State, Mr. Babajide Bewaji, the Regional Bank Head, Upper West Region and members of Staff visited five different schools in the state under the “Read Africa” initiative. The Upper West Region team used the visit to donate 750 copies of “Things Fall Apart” to the students as well as hold reading sessions with students in the benefiting schools.

The RBH encouraged   the students to cultivate a reading habit.  “Those who read become future leaders” he said. 

While in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, two schools benefited from the initiative. The schools are the Government College, Keffi, and the Nasarawa State Government Secondary, Maina. (GSS).

Staff of UBA visited both schools to read from  “Things Fall Apart” and also shared their experiences with the teachers and students in both schools.

Barrister Sani Yakubu-Hauwa of the Nasarawa State Ministry of Education served as the role model and presented the literature books to Government College, Keffi, while the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education, Mallam Umar Usman was the role model who presented the books to Government Secondary School, Maina.

The UBA Read Africa initiative is a pan-African project with similar reading sessions held in different schools in the 19 countries where the UBA Group has its operations. 

It is aimed at rekindling a reading culture in African youths through the distribution of literary classics to schools on the continent. The project has been on-going for the last three years with more than 100,000 books from different  English and French African Authors distributed already.