General News
A second year Political Science student, University of Ibadan, Ayotomiwa Elesho, has won N1 million prize in the 6th Annual National Undergraduate essay competition of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB.
Victor Sunday, 23, of University of Nigeria, Nsukka emerged second, winning N700,000 while Doutimibraladei Frank, a year one student of mechanical engineering, Federal University, Otuoke emerged third, with N500,000.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the best 10 out of the more than 2,000 entries got a laptop each during the event on Wednesday.
The Executive Secretary, Simbi Wabote said that NCDMB had sustained the sponsorship for six years, because the board prioritises impactful youth engagement.
Represented by the Head, Corporate Communications, Esueme Dan-Kikile, Wabote said NCDMB would continue to introduce programmes to engage Nigerian youths, especially the undergraduates.
“The annual national undergraduates’ essay competition is one of NCDMB’s multiple interventions to lift the standard of education in Nigeria.
“It aims to promote proficiency in writing, awareness of local content, its benefits to the national economy, and to engender citizen engagement from undergraduate level.
“The topic is expected to stimulate the young ones to deploy their creativity in capturing strategies that should be considered in transiting into cleaner energy and appraise the board’s interventions.
“I received feedbacks that the participants have done exceptionally well. As we may be aware, in March 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari declared the years 2021 to 2030 as Nigeria’s Decade of Gas.
“The President announced Federal Government’s determination to fully exploit the nation’s abundant gas resources to accelerate economic development of Nigeria.
“This declaration aligns fully with the rising global demand for cleaner energy sources.
“Also in Aug. 2022, the Federal Government launched the Energy Transition Plan, applauded by the United States Government for being the first on the African Continent.
“This is why we chose the topic of this year’s competition to focus on “Strategising for Transformation to Clean Energy Landscape: The NCDMB Intervention,” he said.
Earlier, Chairman of the occasion, Sen. Inatimi Spiff, said the topic for the essay competition was apt, with the effects of climate change ravaging the global landscape.
He noted that nations now looked for alternative sources of energy, challenging youths in tertiary institutions to share their perspectives on the topic.
“Since its establishment, the NCDMB has impacted and enhanced local participation in the oil and gas industry in an appreciable manner.
“The era where artisans and other unskilled personnel were brought from abroad to work in the oil and gas industry even where local capacity abound, has become a thing of the past.
“To NCDMB, the organizing institution, I wish to thank the management and staff for the initiative which in all ramifications is worthy of emulation,” Spiff said.
Mr Eyinimi Omorozi, CEO of Mahogany 21st Century Concepts Limited, consultants to NCDMB on the competition, said the competition was a major event, adding that the board had been supporting it because of its glaring successes.
“In the next five years, we want to see the competition grow where it will be recognised all over the world, so that Nigerians outside will participate in the programme,” he said. (NAN)
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Tags: Ayotomiwa Elesho Doutimibraladei Frank Esueme Dan-Kikile Mr Eyinimi Omorozi NCDMB President Muhammadu Buhari Simbi Wabote Victor Sunday
