September 20, (THEWILL) – An 18-year-old 200 level student of faculty of Law, at the Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Ms Lazarus Favour Iruoma, has won the one million naira (N1,000,000) grand prize of the 2023 Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Undergraduate Essay Competition.
The first runner-up, Ms Lucy Agbalu, went home with seven hundred thousand naira (N700,000), while the second runner-up, Ms Akinduyite Olorunfemi Samuel, got five hundred thousand naira (N500,000), with all the Top 10 getting an HP laptop each.
Speaking during the ceremony, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development And Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote, said the Board was able to sustain the sponsorship of the Undergraduate Essay Competition contest for the last 7 years because of the huge importance they attach to education and the intellectual development of young members of the society.
He said the sponsorship of the competition is in line with the Board mandate, which is capacity-building and local content development.
Simbi said this on Wednesday, during the 7th edition of Award And Prize Giving Ceremony of the NCDMB Annual National Undergraduate Essay Competition 2023, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital.
According to him, “We are using this competition to inculcate Local Content consciousness among students of our higher institutions, thereby creating champions of Local Content among our young men and women in the higher institutions of learning. We will continue to spread the Local Content campaign among our youth communities in schools and other avenues of learning.
“That will ensure that the Local Content Policy is sustained and deepened in all facets of the economy in decades to come, so it will continue to contribute towards economic development, and job creation, while guaranteeing national security.”
This event, he said, has become a signature activity on the Board’s calendar, and this is a testament to the wonderful work done by the Corporate Communication Department and the consultant of this competition, Mahogany Century Concepts Limited.
The Executive Secretary, who was represented by Barr. Dan Esueme Kikile, Manager, Corporate Communications Department, NCDMB, further said another important reason the board sponsorship of the essay contest is the need to challenge the students to sharpen their writing competencies, saying that it is an important skill needed for any career path of one’s choice.
“We also use this competition to engage our youths in productive activities and to keep them away from delinquencies and distractions, which are rampant in our society today.We are proud of the transparent process deployed in selecting the winners and we sincerely thank the renowned professors who dedicated their time and intellect to this competition. This is the hallmark of the NCDMB.
“We have built a strong and reputable brand and every project we get involved in must be excellent, professional and world-class.The past winners of this competition have gone on to excel in their studies and different areas of life.
“This confirms that we attract the best minds every year and we challenge them to test their hands on contemporary and thematic topics around Local Content. In the last few years, topics in this competition have focused on “Research and Development and Local Content” and “Nigerian Content and Energy Transition.”
THEWILL reports that the topic for this year is “Nigerian Content and the Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Simbi said this year topic is another well-conceived topic, considering how the COVID-19 pandemic devastated our world, to the extent that we have not yet recovered fully. “Even after three years of those terrible experiences. More than anything, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of local content as an existential necessity for every nation, particularly for developing nations like Nigeria.
“At the height of the pandemic, the movement of persons and goods was disrupted for several months, forcing every nation to rely on their local resources for survival.The Nigerian oil and gas industry survived that period because of the huge local human and infrastructural capacities we had developed since the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010. That ensured that Nigeria’s oil production continued without interruption, even when all the expatriates had left the country.
“I sincerely hope that our policymakers at different levels of government and in the private sector learnt important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and have taken deliberate steps to develop resilient and sufficient human and infrastructural capacities in key sectors of our national fabric, which can withstand any similar external shocks in future.
“Aside from this undergraduate essay competition, we have several other interventions that we designed to benefit the youth segment of society, especially those in schools of learning.
“One of them is the Integrated Institutional Strengthening and Upgrade which we carry out at selected schools across the country. Several institutions have benefitted from this programme including the Government Technical College, Amoli in Enugu State, Government Technical College, Abak in Akwa Ibom State, Government Technical College (GTC), Port Harcourt, Rivers State and the University of Ibadan Vocational School.
“In those schools, we renovated their technical workshops and installed world-class facilities that are capable of producing well-rounded technicians who can work anywhere in the world.In addition, we have renovated several secondary schools across the country and denoted ICT centres to many schools as part of our corporate social responsibility programmes.”
Simbi commended the consultant on the project, Mahogany Century Concepts Limited for the various improvements they have seen in the management of the event. “I would like to congratulate all participants in the Essay Competition and the winners.
He urged them to remain diligent in their studies and hungry for acquisition of new knowledge.
In his welcome address, the CEO of Mahogany 21st Century Concepts Limited, who is also the Programme Consultant, Mr Eyinimi Omorozi, said they have over fifty thousand Nigerian youths in both public and private Institutions across the country that participated in the academic programme to test their intellectual capacity.
Omorozi said the idea was to promote academic excellence in the Nigerian institutions of learning, saying it was intended to build their capacity and competency in the participation of the Nigerian oil and gas.
He advised them to take advantage of numerous, huge opportunities in it.
