By Emmanuel Elebeke

The T. Y Buratai Literary Initiative, TYBLI,  has increased the cash prize for its 2025 grand winner of the YALP from N1 million to N1.5 million.

The chairman, T.Y Buratai Literary Initiative, Dr. Liz Ben-Iheanacho, announced this at the Flag-Off of 2025 programme of activities and celebration of 65th anniversary  of Cyprien Ekwensi’s The Drummer Boy and The Passport of Mallam Ilia, as part of activities to mark World Reading Aloud Day 2025 held in Abuja

As part of its dedication to upscale the desire of young writers, Iheanacho said TYBLI will in 2025 publish the best 10 entries from 2024 in an anthology at no Cost to the participants. 

The anthology will be distributed to secondary and tertiary institutions across the country.

“The cash prize for the 2025 Grand Winner of the YALP is now N1.5m, up from N1m in 2024. The improved prize money is courtesy of Amb. Babagana Kingibe, Nigeria’s former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the 2924 Awards ceremony.”

According to him, the 6 geopolitical zones winners will each receive N500,000, a 100% increase from the category. 

Also the TYBLI forerunners and illustrators award will be presented to Kola Onadipe  and Frances Effiong, while, the best 10 entries will be published in volume 2 of the TYBLI YAL Anthology.

Reeling out timeline for performance, the chairman said there will be a call to YALP 2025 submission in April, book placement in May, which closes in June, unveiling of judges in July, announcement of Zonal winners in August,  and announcement of shortlist in October, while announcement of grand winner of the award and ceremony will hold  in November. 

He assured that the foundation will continue to engage Nigerian youths through literacy and literary advocacy. 

We are making impact, one reader one time, transforming literary fortunes six winners at a time and with clarity and focus, will continue to work towards a more literate Nigeria as the vehicle for social transformation.

The Foundation is an educational outreach and community give-back service initiative that has mandate to contribute to a more literate Nigeria through book placements which ensure quality, age appropriate leisure reading materials  for youths. It also exist to incubate literary potentials through the TYBLI Young Adult Literature Prize.

During its maiden outing in 2024, the foundation kept faith with its mandate by placing book box in 3 schools: Nasarawa state and FCT.

 It also expanded  the number of literary awards available in Nigeria, birthed the  number of winners of a  single literary prize in Nigeria, 

Narrating what reading has done for her, one of the selected readers, said,

“I started out as a reader and reading has helped me speak confidently, I used to be an introvert. I started out to read to myself and then moved to read to the public.  It makes one read aloud and learn new vocabularies.”