UBA Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the United Bank of Africa (UBA) on Wednesday launched the 2018 edition of the National Essay Competition for Senior High School students in Accra.
The competition, which is a follow up on the Foundation’s Read Africa Initiative, provides a competitive platform to develop the intellectual and writing abilities of Senior High School (SHS) students. The top three winners of this competition will receive educational grants to study in any Africa University of their choice.
Launching this year’s edition of the National Essay Competition, dubbed ‘Law Enforcement, a responsibility for all’, Managing Director and Regional CEO of UBA Ghana, Mrs. Abiola Bawuah said the Foundation every year has supported three students who partake in the competition from the second cycle institution to enter the university.
“So, with this year we will have 15 graduates that UBA Foundation Ghana is going to support,” said Bawuah, adding, “In UBA, we believe that there are quite a number of people out there who have dreams.”
However, she expressed concern about the very low participation in the competition.
The Foundation
Since the inception of the competition in 2013, participants have increased from 400, to 1,800 in 2017.
“We want every school in the country to participate in the competition, because that is the only way we can encourage our group to perhaps to even increase the numbers from three,” she said.
Bawuah called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to help propagate the news of the competition, since currently the Foundation is of the view that not too many students are aware of the programme yet.
Although the prize package for Nigeria’s competition has been increased, that in Ghana still remains the same.
She explained that, this is due to the level of participation in Ghana, which has remained so low since inception.
Application
To join this year’s competition, applicants are expected to send in handwritten essay entries of not more than seven hundred and fifty words on the selected topic to UBA Foundation, UBA head office or any UBA branch.
By Joshua W. Amlanu