The Nigerian Content Development and Management Board (NCDMB) on Wednesday held the close-out ceremony of the NCDMB-sponsored Science Quiz Competition for secondary schools in Bayelsa State.
Speaking at the event, General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, NCDMB, Barr. Esueme Dan Kikile, said the Board seeks to motivate students to start early to develop interest in science as part of its statutory mandate to build local capacities for the oil and gas industry.
He expressed delight at the bright outlook for Africa within the technological space in the foreseeable future, recalling that “as of 2023 around 40 per cent of Africa’s population was 15 years and younger,” and that “by 2063 there will be over one billion people aged 15-25 in Africa,” most of whom would be tech-savvy.
The Corporate Communications boss, who represented the Board’s Executive Secretary, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, said Africa’s greatest asset is its people, particularly those he described as young, dynamic and innovative, noting that “the [tech-savvy] ‘Generation Africa’ is not waiting for opportunities, it is creating them… and they are doing this through technology and creativity.”
He pointed out that “Africa is redefining itself not as a continent of challenges but as a hub of limitless possibilities,” assuring that “NCDMB is willing and ready to continuously collaborate with other partners to create an enabling environment for investments in our creative and digital economies.”
To date, according to him, the Board “has created a robust Research and Development ecosystem to support development of home-grown technology and continuous process improvement, which is essential in deepening local content practice.”
Barr. Kikile commended the top three schools in the competition, namely, Best Breed International Academy, Okaka (Overall winner), Benny International School, Akenpai (Ist runner-up), and Federal Government Girls College, Imiringi (2nd runner-up), expressing the Board’s expectation that their brilliant performance in the competition would translate into creditable showing in their external examinations.
He also thanked the Management of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Yenagoa, the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN), Bayelsa State Chapter, and the Quiz Master, Mr. Richard Okpobo, for their high sense of professionalism, integrity, and impartiality.
In her own remarks, the General Manager, NTA, Yenagoa, Mrs Daoju Whyte, praised the NCDMB for the initiative, stating that she and her Management team were happy to have partnered the Board for over a decade in the promotion of science education through the yearly Science Quiz competitions. She pledged the preparedness of her organisation to continue to act as facilitator for the programme.
Prizes received by the three winning schools included six HP laptops (two each for a secondary school), an electronic scale, a printing machine, a life-size skeleton, and a microscope, for each of the schools.
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