The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Foundation has awarded a N15 million university scholarship to a 15-year-old student, Khaira Bala of Metro International School, Abuja, for emerging as the overall winner of its 2026 National Essay Competition (NEC).

The winner was unveiled on Tuesday at the headquarters of United Bank for Africa (UBA) in Lagos, alongside four other top finalists who will also receive scholarships to support their university education.

The second-place winner, Unwanabasi Udom of Topfaith International Secondary School, Mkpatak, will receive N10 million, while Flourish Ndamzi of the University of Port Harcourt Women Association International Secondary School, who came third, will receive N7.5 million.

God’sFavour Udo of Federal Government Girls’ College, Ikot Obio Itong, placed fourth and will receive N5 million, while Uchenna Anyanwu of Coral Impacts International School, Abuja, came fifth and will receive N3.5 million.

The five winners, all girls, emerged from 20 finalists selected from about 15,000 entries submitted for the 16th edition of the competition.

The scholarship awards are intended to support the winners’ university education. The winners will also receive laptops and an educational trip, according to details of the award package announced at the event.

Speaking after the announcement, Miss Bala said she was excited and surprised by her victory, adding that her parents encouraged her to participate and supported her through the application process.

She said it was her first time entering the competition and described researching and writing her essay as an interesting experience.

“I was extremely happy. I was speechless, and all I could see were my parents happy,” she said.

More about competition

The competition’s preliminary topic was, “No nation can develop without food security. How can Nigeria deal with this problem?” The 20 finalists subsequently wrote on the topic, “Examine how poverty and other social vices contribute to the prevalence of child marriage in Nigeria,” during the final stage.

Speaking at the event, Bola Attah, chief executive officer of the UBA Foundation, said the number of finalists had increased from 12 in previous editions to 20 this year because of the growing number and quality of entries.

Ms Attah also said the number of scholarship recipients had increased from three to five to enable more students to benefit from the initiative.

The 15 other finalists will receive consolation prizes, funded bank accounts and opportunities for mentorship and further support from the Foundation, she said.

Ms Attah said the competition, which began in Nigeria, had expanded to six other African countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Chad and Zambia.

She said the foundation hopes to extend the initiative to all 20 African countries where UBA operates, making it a continental competition.

AI concerns

The competition had four judges who are all professors of English: Asabe Usman, Ini Uko, Emmanuel Omobowale and Samuel Onuigbo

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Presenting the judges’ report, Mrs Uko said the assessment of submissions lasted two weeks and involved evaluating the essays against criteria covering content, expression, organisation, vocabulary, depth of analysis and adherence to competition guidelines.

She said the judges estimated that 35 to 40 per cent of the submissions displayed characteristics associated with artificial intelligence-generated content, including repetitive expressions, similar introductions and conclusions, and a lack of personal voice and local examples.

The judges also identified duplicate submissions, incorrect titles and essays that fell significantly below the required length.

They recommended introducing AI-detection and plagiarism-screening tools, simplifying submission guidelines, and holding workshops for teachers and participating schools to improve students’ understanding of essay-writing standards.

Ms Uko said, “The use of AI is not inherently wrong, but I urged students to research, personalise and critically assess information obtained from such tools rather than reproduce it verbatim.”

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UBA Foundation awards N15m scholarship to 15-year-old essay competition winner

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