By Victor Igiri

Senior  Secondary school children in Nigeria now have another opportunity of winning university educational grants from UBA Foundation. This follows the commencement of the National Essay Competition among senior secondary school students, organised by the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

The call for entries from eligible students began last week and will end on November 2, 2012. Students are expected to write on the topic; As an African President, what would your plans be for the educational sector? The three winning finalists, who will be selected by a panel of three Nigerian professors, will get educational grants to study in African universities of their choice.

Applicants are expected to send in hand-written essay entries of not more than 750 words on the competition topic, with their complete contact information (name of school and address, residential address, phone number and e-mail) to UBA Foundation in Lagos .

”We are excited at hosting this competition again. As with most of our programmes and initiatives, the National Essay Competition is annualized and we hope to use this opportunity to again touch the lives of some Nigerian children,” said Ijeoma Aso, CEO, UBA Foundation.

A total of N2, 250 ,000.00 will be doled out by UBA Foundation. Apart from laptop gifts, the overall winner, 1st and 2nd runners up will get N1,000,000, N750,000.00, N500,000.00 respectively. Last year, Miss Enitan Amodu from the University of Lagos International School, Akoka, Lagos , emerged the overall winner, getting an educational grant of N1m.

The essay competition is running concurrently with the ‘Read Africa’ project of the Foundation, which was flagged off recently by the Kenyan author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Under the ‘Read Africa’ initiative, role models in the society and top management of UBA Plc will be visiting secondary schools to mentor the students and give out copies of this year’s literature book, Weep not Child, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o  to the students, courtesy of the Foundation.

As the corporate social responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa, UBA Foundation has three focus areas; Education, Economic Empowerment and Environment. Through these three focus areas and its Special Projects unit, the Foundation has made positive impacts on  Nigerian and African societies, particularly in countries where UBA operates.