United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana has presented a sum of $10,000 to the three overall winners in its 2022 National Essay Competition at an award presentation ceremony in Accra.

The winners are Genevieve Budu of the Ghana International School, Kenrich Nii Nakai Nettey from Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, Legon and Cecilia Akye also from the Methodist Girls High School, Mamfe.

They received $5000, $3000 and $2,000 respectively as educational grants from the UBA Foundation. In addition, all ten finalists received medals, certificates of participation along with laptops and other UBA-branded items.

Speaking on behalf of the Education Minster, Catherine Agyapomaa Appiah Pinkrah Director, of General Administration at the Education Ministry congratulated all the finalists.

She also commended UBA for its immense contributions to Ghana’s education and commitment to enhancing the writing skills of the youth.

She called on other private sector businesses to emulate a good example of UBA in contributing to its efforts to government’s key education reforms to transform teaching and learning under the Education Strategic Plan (ESP).

Ajuba Amihere Adu-Tutu, Programme Officer for Schools and Instructions Division at the Ghana Education Service (GES) said, GES will continue to pledge its support to the UBA essay competition as the importance of essay writing cannot be downplayed in education.

In his remarks, Chris Ofikulu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBA Ghana revealed that, “UBA Foundation believes that the future of Africa lies in its youths. For this reason, the Foundation has spent huge sums of money to actively facilitate educational projects and bridge the literacy gap on a Pan-African scale.”

She added that “In Ghana, UBA Foundation’s National Essay Competition has grown to be one of the best initiatives that allows every student in Secondary School to exhibit their cognitive skills and potential while developing a positive work ethic with problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

"The National Essay Competition is one of our stunning initiatives to which we will forever pledge our full commitment.”

Genevieve Budu, winner of the National Essay Competition 2022 with full excitement expressed her gratitude to the entire team at UBA for organising the competition.

The event was attended by the management of UBA Ghana, Heads and representatives of participating schools, representatives from Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Education as well as the media.

Prior to the overall top three announcements, the ten finalists were selected from more than 400 entries.

The first topic was on Sports betting while the final essay was on the topic “Illegal Mining (Galamsey) has become a menace in our country. What pragmatic measures should the government put in place to end the challenge of Galamsey?”