- First prize winner to get educational grant of N5 million
UBA Foundation has announced the commencement of the 13th edition of its annual National Essay Competition (NEC) in Nigeria. The Foundation is the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.
The National Essay Competition is part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative aimed at promoting literacy and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst senior secondary school students in Nigeria and across the African continent.
Participants from senior secondary school students across Nigeria can conveniently submit their entries from the comfort of their homes or schools through the UBA Foundation NEC digital submission portal.
The essay topic for this year is “Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) take over Human Intelligence? What should students do to ensure AI doesn’t override but enhance their ability to learn through research?
Students are expected to properly research, write, scan and upload their handwritten essays to the digital portal on or before October 20th, 2023.
The first prize winner will receive an educational grant of N5 million to study at any African university of their choice, whilst the second and third prizes now stand at N3 million and N2.5 million educational grants for any African University.
Also, winners of the 12 best essays, will go home with brand new Laptops and other educational tools to help them with their studies and other tertiary research work.
Commenting on the 2023 edition of the National Essay Competition, MD/CEO of UBA Foundation, Mrs. Bola Atta stated thus:
“We have worked hard to ensure that every Nigerian high school student who wishes to, will be able to enter for the NEC 2023 and stand a chance to win a fully funded University education through the UBA Foundation.”
“For several years, we have upgraded our processes 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 modern day and we would like to reach students in their comfort zones, which is why we encourage students to submit their essays digitally.”
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. Its National Essay Competition has also afforded the opportunity to hundreds of students to improve their lives through higher education.