Eshiet Abasiekeme Eshiet, a 14-year-old pupil of Bright Star model secondary school, Uyo Akwa Ibom State has emerged the overall winner of the 2020 UBA Foundation’s National Essay Competition and with it an educational a grant worth N2.5 million to study in any African university of her choice.
Eshiet’s essay was adjudged the best from 11 other finalists selected from over 12,000 entries received by the UBA Foundation from students of senior secondary schools across Nigeria.
The National Essay Competition which is in its 10th year is targeted at senior secondary students in Nigeria annually, as part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative aims at promoting the reading culture and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst secondary school students in Nigeria and across Africa.
Kennedy Uzoka, group managing director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA Plc, said the competition in the last 10 years have celebrated students with exceptional writing skills and rewarded over 50 students across Africa with scholarships to fund their tertiary education.
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Uzoka while speaking at the event Tuesday held virtually noted that the scholarship gives the winners the opportunity to study in any African country across the continent, adding that some of them have graduated and are already becoming impactful members of the society.
According to him, “This year, notwithstanding the constraints and challenges, we received the highest number of entries ever. Over 12,000 entries from across the country were submitted for this year’s topic. I’d like to acknowledge our judges that painstakingly ensured that all 12,000 submissions were marked, and they had to do it in a different way from what they had done in the past”.
Bola Atta, the managing director /CEO of UBA Foundation while congratulating the winners at the maiden virtual edition of the competition commended them for their exceptional brilliance.
Atta stated that UBA Foundation, being the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of UBA Plc, makes it a point of duty to give back to communities where UBA operates, adding that the increase in the price money is due to the rising cost of education.
Atta further assured that the bank remains committed to programmes that will help students strive for excellence.
Eshiet Abasiekeme Eshiet, while speaking after emerging the winner said she was excited to have come top in the competition.
She lauded UBA and the Foundation for this huge opportunity, adding that the grant will go a long way to support her bid to study law at the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State.
After the highly competitive competition held virtually Mofoluwake Adesanya emerged second and will go home with N2 million education grant while Abduganiyy Habeebah for emerging third will go home with N1.5 million education grant.
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