The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc’s corporate social responsibility division, UBA Foundation, has put out a call for applications for the 2022 edition of the National Essay Competition (NEC) in Nigeria.
The yearly competition (NEC) is a component of the UBA Foundation’s education program, which aims to advance literacy among senior secondary school students in Nigeria and throughout the African continent and to foster healthy and intellectual competition.
This year’s competition, which is in its 12th year, will see more students from Senior Secondary Schools across Nigeria participate because they can now easily submit their entries from the comfort of their homes or schools using the UBAF NEC digital submission portal, which is located at https://www.ubagroup.com/national-essay-competition/.
Up from N3.5 million in 2021, the first-place winner will now earn a scholarship worth N5 million to attend any African university of their choice. The second and third awards have increased from N2.5 million and N2 million, respectively, to N3 million and N2.5 million in educational grants.
The top 12 essay winners will also get brand-new laptops and other teaching resources to support students in their tertiary research projects and other academic endeavors.
The Chief Executive Officer, UBA Foundation, Mrs. Bola Atta, said that with the digital submission portal, more students in secondary schools across the country would have the opportunity to scan and send in their entries and compete to win educational grants for study at any university of their choice on the African continent.
She said: “Overtime, we have worked hard to ensure that our UBA Foundation programmes continue to impact lives in meaningful ways. We realise that the use of technologically driven initiatives is part of the modern day and we would like to reach students in their comfort zones.
“Every Nigerian high school student who wishes to, will be able to enter for the NEC 2022 and stand a chance to win a fully funded University education through the UBA Foundation” Atta said.
The essay topic for this year is: ‘ASUU strikes have often cost Nigerian students time. Advise the Nigerian government on how they can reach an agreement with ASUU to improve tertiary education in the country.’
All essays must be handwritten (not typed) and students have up until October 14, 2022 to upload the scanned copies of their handwritten entries as well as their IDs on the digital portal at www.ubagroup.com/national-essay-competition. No physical copies will be accepted this year.
The submissions will be evaluated by judges who are professors from renowned Nigerian universities. The professors will select the top 12 finalists who will take home consolation prizes including personal computers. These 12 finalists will write another supervised essay where the top three winners will be announced at the grand finale to be held in November at UBA’s head office in Lagos, Nigeria.
The essay competition has been expanded to other African countries where UBA operates, in order to open up the opportunity for more African children.
The UBA Foundation embodies the CSR goals of the UBA Group and works to improve society through a number of admirable projects and programs. To encourage and promote a reading culture among African youth, the Foundation’s Education pillar has given hundreds of thousands of books to children across Africa as part of the “Read Africa” campaign. Via the National Essay Competition, hundreds of children have had the chance to better their lives through education.
