UBA Basis, the Company Social Accountability (CSR) arm of the United Financial institution for Africa (UBA) Plc, has launched the 2024 version of its prestigious Nationwide Essay Competitors (NEC), unveiling a major 100% enhance within the instructional grants for prime winners.
Now in its 14th 12 months, the NEC is an initiative designed to foster literacy, important pondering, and wholesome competitors amongst secondary faculty college students, whereas offering future leaders with the monetary assist wanted to pursue larger training.
This 12 months’s competitors invitations senior secondary faculty college students to submit essays on the subject: “The Affect of Carbon Emission on Local weather in Nigeria: Focus on the Challenges and Proffer Options.” This theme aligns with international local weather change efforts, encouraging college students to interact with one of the vital urgent environmental challenges.
Out of 1000’s of entries, 75 finalists will every obtain a N75, 000 grant earlier than competing in a regional essay-writing competitors held in Abuja, Enugu, Lagos, and Port Harcourt. From there, the highest 20 finalists will vie for the grand prizes: N7.5 million for first place, N5 million for second place, and N3.5 million for third place. As well as, all 20 finalists will obtain laptops and different instructional instruments to reinforce their educational pursuits.
In a brand new initiative this 12 months, academics from the highest three faculties with the best variety of entries will even be rewarded for his or her efforts in encouraging participation.
Essays can be judged by a panel of esteemed English professors from throughout Nigeria, with successful submissions evaluated on originality, depth of perception, and creativity.
Talking on the launch, Bola Atta, Managing Director/CEO of UBA Basis, emphasised the Basis’s dedication to training as a catalyst for growth. “At UBA Basis, we acknowledge the transformative energy of training. Via this competitors, we aren’t solely serving to younger Africans understand their potential but in addition equipping them with the assets to form the way forward for our continent. We’re dedicated to empowering youth to dream huge and obtain greatness.”
Atta additional defined the choice to extend the prizes: “We perceive the monetary challenges many households face, particularly given Nigeria’s present financial local weather. By growing the grant prizes, we goal to make a transparent assertion about our unwavering dedication to African training. This adjustment displays our consciousness of the rising value of high quality training and ensures that excellent college students can pursue their educational desires with out monetary limitations.”
The Nationwide Essay Competitors has additionally been prolonged to different African international locations the place UBA operates, increasing alternatives for college students throughout the continent to profit from these instructional grants.
As a cornerstone of UBA Group’s CSR technique, UBA Basis continues to make a constructive impression by varied initiatives. The Basis’s “Learn Africa” program has donated a whole lot of 1000’s of books to college students throughout the continent, whereas the Nationwide Essay Competitors has enabled numerous college students to additional their training and alter their lives.