The United Bank for Africa Foundation (UBA) has announced that it has opened its portal for students to send in their entries for the 2020 National Essay Competition with 33 percent increase in cash prices for this year’s edition winners after introduction of digital entry.
As stated, the first prize winner will get an educational grant of N2.5m, up from N2m in 2019, and that second and third prize winners would get N2m and N1.5m educational grants respectively, from N1.5m and N1m which were awarded in the previous year’s competition.
It explained that the call for entries was in line with the foundation’s commitment towards promoting reading culture, encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst secondary school students in Nigeria and across Africa.
The Chief Executive Officer, UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, said that the 2020 edition had been modified to ensure ease of access and increased participation of senior secondary school students from the comfort of their homes through the introduction of a digital submission portal.
Through a statement released to newsmen on Sunday, Atta said that the 33 percent increase in cash prizes for winners became imperative after taking into consideration the effects of coronavirus has had on lives and incomes across board.
She added that with the newly introduced digital submission portal, more students in secondary schools across the country would have opportunity to scan, send in entries and compete to win educational grants for study at any university of choice on the African continent.
“As a foundation, which is the CSR arm of the United Bank for Africa – a fully digitalised bank, we are driven by the mantra to always innovate and adapt to our constantly changing environment.
This year, we thought hard about how to ease the pains that everyone is feeling. Students have not been able to go to school and there has been a lot of anxiety in families trying to ensure that educational gaps do not emerge.
It is imperative for us at the UBA Foundation that our impact programmes do not wane. We also need to design them to be as inclusive as possible so that those students who don’t have easy access to computers can still participate in the competition with a chance to win grants towards their tertiary edification.
All entrants are to hand write their essays and upload scanned copies of their handwritten entries as well as ID on the digital portal at www.ubagroup.com/national-essay-competitionbefore October 2, 2020.
They may also drop off the handwritten essays at their nearest UBA business office for onward submission to the UBA Foundation,” the statement read.
