The Grand Final of the United Bank for Africa Foundation National Essay Competition was held on Tuesday, 16th January, 2018 at the Bank’s Corporate Headquarters at Heritage Towers, Ridge, Accra, Ghana, with 16 year old Jason Emmanuel K. Asante Ghansah from Presbyterian Boys Senior High School emerging as winner. The 4th Ghana edition brought together 12 finalists from seven different schools across Ghana and was met with intense competition and bragging rights at the head office of UBA Ghana from among the 12 finalists who fiercely vied for the ultimate.
Students from Ola Senior High School, Wesley Girls’ High School; Keta Senior High Tech School, WBM Zion Senior High School; KNUST Senior High School, Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School, Legon and Aburi Girls’ Senior High School were in the finals with Aburi Girls’ entering with three students, two from Wesley Girls and two from Ola Senior High, with the rest presenting one student each.
Mr. Jason Emmanuel K. Asante Ghansah from Presbyterian Boys Senior High School received an amount of $5,000.00 and a trophy as wining prize, whiles Wesley Girls’ Senior High School’s, Appiah Mame Anokyewah Antwi Ekua and Yasmeen Quartey emerged first and second runners-up receiving $3500 and $2000 respectively. The cash prize serves as an educational grant for the winners to study in any African university of their choice.
Speaking at the ceremony, UBA Ghana MD/CEO, Mrs. Abiola Bawuah congratulated all 12 finalists, calling them winners for taking a step of faith by being part of the competition. She challenged all senior high students out there to look out for the competition and participate in the 2018 edition. “Today, we have identified the 12th winner since the inception of the competition four years ago. Already, the UBA Foundation was taking care of nine students at the tertiary level and we are happy to announce that from now on they will be 12. We are fully committed to this and it remains our priority to continue with this part of our contribution to society.” She said. “To our stakeholders, the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, your support to this cognitive competition has been enormous and we hope that the relationship will continue.” Mrs Bawuah concluded.
The Director for Secondary Education, Dr. Mrs. Angela Tena Mensah, highlighted strong points of the UBA Foundation National Essay Competition, such as allowing every student to exhibit their cognitive skills and potentials while developing a positive work ethic with problem solving and critical thinking skills.
She expressed that, “The idea of using the essay to elicit information from the young ones is indirectly asking these students to contribute to the national fight against galamsey. Our hope is that the fantastic ideas from the essays would be gathered and presented to those who matter in the fight against galamsey”.
She was quick to express the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) appreciation to UBA Ghana for this laudable initiative. “This UBA Essay Competition is one of the most inspiring projects for the Ghana Education Service. We appreciate this endeavour to promote literacy, expression and creativity among young people greatly and above all the grant that is given them for their tertiary education“, she said.
Each of the 12 finalists was given a UBA branded Laptop to go home with as a token for the bold step they took and to encourage them and others to participate anytime there is such an opportunity.
UBA’s National Essay Competition is a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of UBA (Ghana) Limited as a way of supporting the educational sector in Ghana. Launched in 2014 in Ghana, the competition provides a competitive platform to develop the intellectual and writing abilities of Senior High School students across Africa. This is a build-up on UBA’s annual READ AFRICA PROJECT; which involves the distribution of literature books authored by African writers to a number of second cycle institutions across the country.
