9 students win scholarships in Seplat quiz contest

Nine students, drawn from Edo and Delta States have won scholarships in the 2020 edition of the Seplat Pearls Quiz Competition, Newsmen reports.

The competition was put in place by Seplat, an oil service company as part of its corporate social responsibility to promote education in Edo and Delta annually.

Speaking at a ceremony after the quiz competition in Benin on Thursday, the Chief Executive Office of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc., Mr Roger Brown, said the competition was staged annually for all secondary schools in Edo and Delta to improve their academic standards.

Brown represented by Dr Chioma Nwachukwu, General Manager, External Affairs and Communication, said the competition now in its ninth year was designed to rekindle academic excellence and healthy competition among young people.

Brown said the competition was meant to motivate, encourage and reward the ethos of learning and to inculcate teamwork among students.

According to him, the competition has helped Edo and Delta to maintain high success rates in external examinations, including the West African Examinations Council.

He described Seplat as a leading indigenous oil and gas exploration and production company with strategic focus on Nigeria.

“The company is pursuing a Nigeria-focused growth strategy and is well-positioned to participate in future divestment programmes by the international oil companies, farm-in opportunities and future licensing rounds.

“The Seplat Pearls Quiz Competition is implemented in two stages — the test stage is where all public and private secondary schools take a qualifying test.

“The competition stage is where qualified schools go head-to-head and losers are eliminated until a champion emerges for the year.

“All qualified schools from the test stage go home with Seplat branded laptop bags, exercise books and tee shirts.

“Seplat also provides transportation subsidy to all participating schools.”

Brown explained that because of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, an innovation was introduced, where all the schools wrote the qualifying test online with Seplat providing data for all.

He disclosed that 574 schools took the test and that 104 schools — 52 each from Edo and Delta progressed to the next round.

Brown explained that the top three prizes were the first prize of N7 million and N100, 000 scholarship grant to three top students.

“The second prize is N3 million and N75, 000 scholarship grant to the 3 winning students and the third prize is N1 million and N50, 000 scholarship grant to the 3 winning students.’’

He disclosed that the competition was open to students in
public and private schools in the two states.

“The Seplat chief executive officer said that a total of 45,140 students had been impacted in the competition and that 35 of them were currently in various universities across Nigeria.

Brown said that in this year’s competition, St. Michael’s Academy, Benin, emerged the overall winner of the competition, defeating McNell Secondary School, Sapele in Delta.

Glory Land Secondary School in Akoko Edo came third in the finals of the competition, which was held at Imaguero College in Benin.