National Essay Competition 2018: UBA Foundation Calls for Entries, Increases Grant by 100%

UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has commenced the 2018 edition of its annual National Essay Competition in Nigeria with a call for entries.

The essay competition, targeted at senior secondary school students is organised annually as part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative aimed at promoting the reading culture and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition among secondary school students in Nigeria and across Africa.

Speaking at the media launch to announce the call for entries held at the bank headquarters in Lagos yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of UBA Foundation, Mrs. Bola Atta, said the essay competition provides an opportunity for students in secondary schools across the country to put in their entries and win prizes in the form of educational grants to study in any universities based in Africa. This prize, according to her, will encourage them to strive towards their goals in life.

This year, the prize money has increased significantly as the UBA Foundation emphasises that education remains one of the foundation’s key initiatives.

According to Atta, the first prize for the UBA National Essay Competition is a N2 million educational grant for the winner to study in any African university of his or her choice, a 100 percent increase from N1million which was awarded last year, while the second and third prizes have increased to N1.5 million and N1million educational grants respectively up from N750,000 and N500,000 previously obtained.

Speaking to the students and participants at the event, Atta said: “We are well aware that if you help get one child educated, you help support an entire family as that child will eventually positively impact his/her community.

“The competition is a key aspect of our investment drive in human capital as we seek to improve knowledge base, which allows students to express themselves and write creatively. We will continue to sustain the initiative because education is very important to UBA and we are more than committed to providing the necessary support for students in Nigeria and throughout the African continent,” she noted.

Each year, the bank donates thousands of books to students in Nigeria and across Africa, under the ‘Read Africa’ initiative to encourage and promote the reading culture in secondary schools.