UBA Foundation, the
corporate social responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc , has
announced the opening of entries for the 2015 edition of its annual
National Essay Competition.
Ijeoma Aso, the
Managing Director/CEO of UBA Foundation, at a media briefing held at the UBA
Head Office in Lagos, on Wednesday, September 30, 2015, 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.
Entries for the essay
competition opens on September 30, 2015 and will close on November 13,
2015. The essay topic for this year is “What matters most to you in life
and why.”
Speaking during the media briefing, Ms Aso, said the essay competition provides an opportunity for students in senior secondary schools in Nigeria to win prizes in the 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.
Ms
Aso explained that the competition is part of the Foundation's initiative to
promote creative and analytical thinking in senior secondary students in
Nigeria and is a follow up on the Foundation’s Read Africa initiative, which
promotes reading culture among students through the reading and free
distribution of Africa literary classics in secondary schools. The national
essay competition is also held Ghana and Senegal.
Managing Director/CEO, UBA Foundation, Ms Ijeoma
Aso; Deputy CEO, UBA Africa, Mr. Emeke Iweriebor; Director, Marketing and
Corporate Relations, UBA Africa, Mrs Bola Atta, with students of secondary
schools, during the launch of the 2015 edition of National Essay
Competition for Senior Secondary School students in Nigeria, organised by UBA
Foundation, held at UBA House in Lagos on Wednesday.
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 finalist 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 win educational grants to study in any African university
of their choice.
The Group Managing Director and CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, represented by Mr. Emeke Iweriebor, Deputy CEO, UBA Africa, said the essay competition is UBA’s modest contribution to educational development in Nigeria and across Africa.
The Group Managing Director and CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, represented by Mr. Emeke Iweriebor, Deputy CEO, UBA Africa, said the essay competition is UBA’s modest 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.”
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. He also dared
students to dream big and read and write extensively.
“Great leaders are
people who read. They read everything that they come across. They have a
curious mind so they study hard” Mr. Iweriebor said.
Also speaking at the
media briefing, Bola Atta, Director- UBA Africa, Marketing and Corporate
Communications, urged students to see the national essay competition as a
opportunity to lay a foundation for success in the future.
l-r: Director, Marketing and Corporate Relations, UBA
Africa, Mrs Bola Atta; MD/CEO, UBA Foundation, Ms Ijeoma Aso; and
Deputy CEO, UBA Africa, Mr. Emeke Iweriebor, during the launch of the
2015 edition of National Essay Competition for Senior Secondary School students
in Nigeria, organised by UBA Foundation, held at UBA House in Lagos.
“You have an amazing
world ahead of you. You can be all that you want to be. By reading, you get
ideas and you can imagine whatever you want to be. The mind has a way to
channel your energy into whatever you want to become in future” she said.
She also urged the
students to read far and wide and that no information gained from reading is
wasted.
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
the 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