UBA Foundation increases prize money for essay competition winner

UBA Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has commenced the 2020 edition of its annual National Essay Competition in Nigeria with a call for entries.
Now in its tenth year, the National Essay Competition (NEC) is part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative which is aimed at promoting the reading culture and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst secondary school students in Nigeria and across Africa.
This year’s edition, which is the 10th since inception, has 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.
Taking into consideration the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on lives and incomes across board, the UBA Foundation has also increased the prize money for the 2020 edition of the NEC by 33 per cent as the first prize winner will get an educational grant of N2.5m, up from N2m in 2019. The second and third prize winners will now receive N2m and N1.5m educational grants respectively, from N1.5m and N1m which were awarded in the previous year’s competition.
The Chief Executive Officer, UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, stated that with the newly introduced digital submission portal, more students in secondary schools across the country will have the opportunity to scan and send in their entries and compete to win educational grants for study at any university of their choice on the African continent.