First Bank of Nigeria Limited has once again partnered with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) to host its annual flagship event, the National Company of the Year competition (NCOY).
The yearly competition convenes winners of the JA company regional competitions across Nigeria to compete for the National Company of the Year award.
The 2021 edition of the NCOY competition will be held virtually via Zoom meetings at 10am on Saturday, November 27.
This year, the event will bring together outstanding ‘student business teams’ across Nigeria to compete for prizes and an opportunity to represent the country at the national competition – JA African Company of the Year competition (ACOY).
The competition themed ‘Innovation with Grit’ will have 12 teams from 12 schools pitch their innovations to a team of five guest judges. The represented schools at the competition include The Seer company from Alvana High School; Sonic Informatics company from Heritage Global Academy; Nexus Queens company from Queens School; JA Stars from Theological College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN); Amazing Amazon Students from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Abaji; KereTerra Company from Secondary School Etoi, Uyo and The Exploit thinkers from Taidob College.
Other teams competing include Mystic Global Company from Rosa Mystica High School, Agulu; PetraMech Tech from Petra Schools; The Amazing Inventors from Government Secondary School Tudun Wada; Blue crystal company from Methodist Girls school and the Artisans from Igbobi College.
Judges at the event include Oludolapo Adigun, group head, retail banking Lagos and West First Bank of Nigeria Limited; Chidimma Okparah, project management consultant (PMIEF); Sheila Ojei, head of communications Jobberman; Gbenga Sesan, executive director of Paradigm Initiative; and Simbo Olatoregun, policy programs manager for Facebook in Africa. In attendance also is the Lagos State commissioner for education Folashade Adefisayo as special guest.
The 2021 National Company of the Year programme will also feature SPARK competition. SPARK as an initiative of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, is an acronym for Start Performing Acts of Random Kindness, to show the bank’s commitment to institutionalising kindness in Nigeria by encouraging and amplifying a culture of kindness.
The SPARK competition will feature 15 finalist schools across Nigeria, whose CSR projects align with the bank’s corporate responsibility and sustainability pillars of education, welfare and health, financial inclusion and responsible lending and procurement.
Speaking on the event, spokesperson for FirstBank Folake Ani-Mumuney said, “FirstBank’s partnership under its Future First initiative with JA Nigeria Company programme has positively impacted over 100,000 people in different locations across the country in preparing and teaching them how to generate wealth, effectively manage it and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Our commitment to fostering entrepreneurial development amongst youths is mainly the driving force behind our support of the National Company of the Year (NCOY) and Africa Company of the Year (ACOY) competitions in past 11 years.”
Interested participants are to register here.
