NSE commences 2013 annual competition for students

NSE President, Oscar Onyeama is ambitious about the future of the NSE

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has officially kicked off its 12th Annual National Essay Competition with the call for entries in secondary schools across the six geo-political zones of the country.

A press statement from the bourse indicated that the theme for this year’s competition is “Building a Sustainable Capital Market” with submission for entries expected to close by the fourth week of October 2013.

The statement added that this year’s edition showcases a slightly modified structure for the competition with upgrades intended to engage more young people in the society.

With the competition now targeted at only Senior Secondary School students, to reflect the new focus, the nomenclature has been modified to “The NSE Essay Competition – Building a Financially Savvy Generation”.

Speaking on the competition, NSE’s Head of Corporate Communication, Mrs. Nwando Ajene, said that “the Exchange is committed to the support of efforts aimed at addressing financial literacy and empowerment. This commitment is expressed in the various financial inclusions and literacy initiatives undertaken by the NSE, one of which is the Annual Essay Competition”.

She added that the competition’s overall goal is to develop a culture of wealth creation amongst the youths.

“Today, the competition attracts entries from all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and this clearly symbolises its national acceptability. The success of the competition nationwide over the years continues to be encouraging and has created further impetus for The Exchange to strengthen this initiative across the country”, Ajene said.

She further stated that “In line with the philosophy of the competition, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners will be given equity investments in quoted companies in addition to scholarship funds, notebook computers and state-of-the-art tablets.

“Their schools will get varying quantities of PCs and printers. Furthermore, 24 zonal winners will be rewarded with consolation prizes of ordinary shares of quoted companies”.

This competition, which was instituted in 1999, had its first award ceremony in 2000 and was aimed at increasing awareness on the benefits of investing in securities.

The maiden edition, which was limited to Lagos State as a pilot case, had over 1,200 entries from over 100 secondary schools and four tertiary institutions in the state.

The second edition in 2001 had a national outlook as over 4,000 students participated from secondary schools nationwide, while 300 students participated in the tertiary institutions category.