United Bank of Africa (Ghana) Limited has presented awards to some 12 students who excelled in its 2015 National Essay Competition.

Seraphina AkuKekeliAdzokpa of Ola Girls Senior High School won the grand prize of a GHC 20,000 educational grant in the second edition of the competition.

 UBA Ghana introduced the National Essay Competition last year to develop the intellectual writing abilities of students at the Senior High level. This is part of its Read Africa Project, a project dedicated to instill the culture of reading among Senior High students in nineteen (19) African countries.

In her speech during the presentation of the awards, the Managing Director of UBA Ghana, AbiolaBawuah  “We as a bank are happy and excited to be of assistance with the grant as promised at this crucial time of their educational journey.  It is with this same feeling, we are about to announce the second batch of students to be supported for their tertiary education in any African university”

“At UBA, we believe strongly that the future of Africa, and for that matter, Ghana lies in her youth. Hence, our gathering here this morning to add our quota to the numerous efforts being put in place by the Hon. Minister of Education and her team at the ministry and GES to continue this trajectory of improving academic performance and results from the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)”

MrsBawuah also impressed on businesses, the need to take keener interest in promoting education. This, according to her is because education remains the key to the development of  an economy which businesses also require to thrive.

“At UBA, we heavily focus our social responsibility initiatives on education. For the past 4 years, UBA Ghana has been supplying literature books written by African writers to a number of Senior High Schools across the country to help instil the culture of reading among senior high school students, with the ultimate aim of improving both written and verbal communication in English.

In addition, we have introduced the National Essay Competition targeted at second cycle students. It is our hope that, the educational grants the winners will receive from UBA will help some brilliant but needy students realize their dreams.

The road to transforming and improving our educational sector may appear long and dreary; but we at UBA are hopeful and committed to providing our quota in supporting government, the Ministry of Education, parents and students to improve education in Ghana” she concluded.