The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Foundation has doubled the prize money for its annual essay competition to N4,500,000 million for the top three winners.
The Managing Director, UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, revealed the increase while announcing the call for entries for the 2018 edition of the competition at the bank’s headquarters in Marina, Lagos, on Monday.
Ms Atta said the overall best winner would get N2million scholarship grant – up from the previous N1million, which would be paid yearly until the student graduates from any university in Africa.
The second place would get N1,500,000 as against N750,000, while the third position would get N1 million – from the N500,000 previous prize money.
Senior Secondary School pupils across the country have until November 2, 2018 to submit their entries for the essay competition, titled: “What is the biggest environmental issue that your generation will face and how can it be avoided?”
Ms Atta said the Foundation, which is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, set up the competition to give Nigerian youths opportunity to get educated regardless of their backgrounds, increase their knowledge through reading and research, and improve their writing skills.
“The national essay competition started not only to allow students fund their education but help them enhance their reading and writing skills. The essay competition is a continuation of the Read Africa initiative. If you read well, you will write well,” she said.
Ms Atta said winners of the best 12 entries would be invited to write a second essay under live examination conditions to certify their work.
She challenged pupils of Holy Child School, Obalende, and Victoria Island Secondary School, who were present at the event, to enter the competition and submit essays that could be among the winning entries.