UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has announced the commencement of the 2021 edition of its annual National Essay Competition (NEC) in Nigeria with a call for entries.
The National Essay
Competition (NEC) is part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative which is
aimed at promoting literacy and encouraging healthy and intellectual
competition amongst senior secondary school students in Nigeria and across the
African continent.
This
year’s edition, which is its 11th, has been modified to ensure ease of access and
the increased participation of students from Senior Secondary School across
Nigeria, who can submit their entries from the comfort of their homes and
schools through the UBAF NEC digital submission portal www.ubagroup.com/national-essay-competition.
Like the previous
year, the prizes for the NEC 2021 winners have increased in value considerably
by 33%. The first prize winner will receive an educational grant of N3
million to study at any African university of their choice, up from the N2.5
million in 2020. The second and third prizes now stand at N2.5 million and N2
million educational grants respectively. Winners of the 12 best essays will
also go home with state-of-the-art Laptops to help them with their tertiary
research work and other studies.
The Chief
Executive Officer, UBA Foundation, Mrs. Bola Atta, said that the Foundation
scaled up the prizes for the second year in a row in order to accommodate the
adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and also the fluctuation in the
currency levels.
She explained that
with the digital submission portal, more students in secondary schools across
the country will 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.
“At UBA
Foundation, it is imperative that our programmes continue to impact lives
in meaningful ways. We realise that the use of technologically driven
initiatives is part of the modern day. We want to be able to reach the students
where they are and this is mostly online. The digital portal for online
submission has made it more comfortable for students to send in their
applications and compete with ease. For those who do not have access to
computers or data, we are going to make this competition inclusive by allowing
them access to any UBA branch near them to submit their entries digitally. Every
student who wishes to, will be able to enter for the NEC 2021 and stand a
chance to win a fully funded University education through the UBA Foundation’
said Atta.
The
essay topic for this year is: “What is the role of technology
in educating the African Youth?” All essays must be handwritten and students
have up until October 29, 2021 toupload 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 reputable
Nigerian Universities. These judges select the top 12 finalists who will take
home consolation prizes including personal computers. The 12 finalists
will write another supervised essay where the top three winners will be
announced at the grand finale to be held on November 30th at UBA’s
head office in Lagos, Nigeria.
The UBA
Foundation’s National Essay Competition has been rolled out in 4 other
countries where UBA operates, with plans in place to cover 19 African countries
in the next couple of years.
UBA Foundation
embodies the UBA Group’s CSR objectives and seeks to impact positively on societies
through several laudable projects and initiatives. The Foundation through its
Education pillar, has donated hundreds of thousands of books to students across
Africa under the ‘Read Africa’ initiative aimed at encouraging and promoting
the reading culture in African youths.
Students
can apply for the National Essay Competition 2021 at: www.ubagroup.com/national-essay-competition
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