UBA Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has announced the commencement of the 2026 edition of its annual National Essay Competition (NEC), with a total of N41 million in educational grants and prizes to be awarded to the top five winners.

Now in its 16th consecutive year, the competition continues to provide senior secondary school students in Nigeria and Africa, with a platform to showcase their creativity, writing skills and critical thinking while earning financial support towards their university education.

A major highlight of this year’s competition is the expansion of educational grants to the fourth- and fifth-place winners for the first time. The first-place winner will receive a N15 million university grant, representing a 50 per cent increase from the N10 million awarded in 2025, while the second- and third-place winners will receive N10.5 million and N7.5 million respectively.

The fourth- and fifth-place winners will receive N5 million and N3.5 million each in grants towards their university education at any African university of the winners’ choice.

This year’s competition challenges students to examine one of Nigeria’s most pressing issues as they will tackle the topic: “No nation can develop without food security. How can Nigeria deal with this problem?” where participants will be expected to propose practical and sustainable solutions to Nigeria’s food security challenges.

Commenting on the initiative, the Managing Director/CEO of UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, said the competition reflects the Foundation’s commitment to empowering young Nigerians to contribute meaningfully to national development.


She said, “For well over a decade, the National Essay Competition has provided a vital platform for our secondary school students to express their ideas and showcase their intellectual prowess.”

Continuing, she said, “This year’s topic is particularly crucial, as it tasks them to confront one of the defining questions of our time, which is how we feed our nation and secure its future. We believe the young minds of today hold the key to a more prosperous and self-sufficient Nigeria.”

Eligible students are required to submit handwritten essays of no more than 750 words through the competition’s digital portal on or before Friday, October 23, 2026. Applicants must be Nigerian senior secondary school students and are required to complete the online application form and upload their handwritten essay, a recent passport photograph and a valid birth certificate, National ID card or international passport.

The National Essay Competition remains one of UBA Foundation’s flagship education initiatives, complementing its Read Africa programme and other interventions designed to promote literacy, education and youth development across Africa.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has retained the country’s Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, at 26.50 per cent for the second consecutive time, following its May and July 2026 meetings.


CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed this during a media briefing after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to Cardoso, all 11 members of the committee attended the 306th meeting, where they reviewed recent domestic and global economic developments before deciding to leave the benchmark lending rate unchanged.


The decision means the CBN has maintained its tight monetary policy stance in a bid to sustain the moderation in inflation, stabilise the foreign exchange market, and consolidate recent macroeconomic gains.

Recall that in May, the MPC also retained the interest rate at 26.50 per cent.


The latest MPR decision by the MPC comes as the country’s inflation eased to 15.91 per cent in June 2026. However, food inflation has remained high across Nigeria.

A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services, Dennis Amachree, has waded into the conflicting accounts of how the Oyo schoolchildren and their teachers regained their freedom from terrorists.

He said both the captives’ version and the Federal Government’s account of a rescue operation could be true at the same time.

One of the freed teachers had said the terrorists released them before security operatives arrived to take them home.

This differed from the government’s earlier position that the release followed a rescue operation involving arrests, with no prisoner exchange.

Asked how Nigerians should interpret the two seemingly contradictory narratives in an interview with TVC News on Monday, Amachree said the situation on ground was fluid enough to accommodate both.

He explained that the terrorists may have promised to let the captives go even as troops were closing in around them.

“Well both can exist as the truth because see it’s fluid. The situation is very very fluid. You know some of them can say oh we’re almost releasing them and then of course the security agents came in and then did everything,” he said.

He said the terrorists’ hand had effectively been forced before any release took place.

According to him, troops had surrounded the terrorists in the forest and cut off their food supplies and communication links, leaving them with limited options.

He said, “One important thing you have to realize is that the operation itself you know was one that was squeezing life out of the terrorists. They were totally surrounded in that forest and as they’re moving they cut off all their food supplies.

“They cut off all their communication you know links and they were in fact they don’t have much options you know,

“So they could tell you that ‘oh yeah we’re almost releasing them’ but they knew that they’ve lost the game.”

On concerns raised by some Nigerians over how much operational detail security agencies should disclose after such rescues, Amachree said the public should be glad such details were shared at all, noting that similar operations had, in the past, remained classified for years.

He said, “Well I think Nigerians should be happy that we’re even discussing this because some of these things could be classified for years before we hear them. But the DSS is able to come out and even talk about it.”


He said other security institutions had also come forward with information.

“Other people that are in the know are talking about it. The military is talking about it. So at least this just to inform the public because there are a lot of people who are still believing otherwise,” he said.

He said Nigerians who did not believe the security agencies could do what they did should note that terrorists existed and that publicity was one of their major objectives.

He added that publicity remained a key objective for terrorist groups, and cautioned against media coverage, particularly on social media, that plays into that goal. He said the trend needed to change.

“And let me tell you terrorists exist and one of their major objective is publicity. And of course the Nigerian press especially social media now is giving them all the publicity they need.

“And we cannot continue doing that. And I think the military has come out to talk about it because they feel that they should at least tell the Nigerian public what is going on. Otherwise some of these things could be classified for years before they even come to public knowledge,” he said.