15-year-old Eziaku wins 2021 UBA national essay contest

A 15-year-old student of His Grace High School, Enugu, Eziaku Esther Enwereuzo, has emerged winner of the 2021 National Essay Competition organised by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc among secondary school students nationwide.

She was announced the winner at the grand finale of the competition and award ceremony held at UBA House, Marina, Lagos, last week.

UBA National essay competition, which is an annual event and with this year’s edition 11th in the series, is one of the UBA intervention initiatives on education domiciled under its social arm, UBA Foundation

Esther, an SS3 student and youngest child of her parents defeated Nduka Chukwubikem, a 17-year-old student of Oxfords international School, Abia State and a 15-year old Hajarat Abdulwahab, a student of Addy Basic School, Kano, to second and third prizes, respectively and also nine other finalists from among over 7,000 students who submitted entries nationwide.

While Esther is rewarded for her effort with N3 million scholarship grant to study at any university of her choice in Africa, a trophy, laptop, certificate of merit, and a school bag, Chukwubikem and Hajarat on their part won N2.5 million and N2 million scholarship grants also to study at their choice universities in Africa respectively and equally received a laptop, certificate of merit, and a school bag each. Surprisingly, all of them are science students and from private schools.

Esther, who was accompanied to the event by her mother, Mrs Joy Chika Eziaku, a civil servant, told Nigerian Tribune that winning the competition was really tasking as she burnt night candles to read and research to put down the winning essay.

They wrote on “If you could set up an entrepreneurship business, what will it be and how will it impact Africa.”

While commending UBA Foundation for providing the platform, she said she had gained additional knowledge about contemporary issues in Africa and that hard work and commitment certainly paid off.

In his remarks at the event, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA Plc, Mr Kennedy Uzoka, said UBA is particularly happy to be using the platform to boost reading culture and encourage healthy competition among students, noting that the annual event has produced hundreds of winners with many today contributing to national development.

He promised that the bank through the competition would continue to support the education of Nigerians who want to study in any of the African universities.

Also speaking, MD/CEO, UBA Foundation, Bola Atta congratulated and commended the winners for their exceptional performance, urging those who did not win any prize this year not to be discouraged but be more focused and committed to enable them to do better in future.

She said the foundation has extended the competition to some other African countries including Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Guinea as a way of giving back to communities where the bank operates.

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15-year-old Eziaku wins 2021 UBA national essay contest