SystemSpecs Essay Competition Champions Elated after Emerging Winners out of Over 2,000 Entries

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Oluwaseun Samuel Temitayo-Ojo of Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos, who was the champion in the junior category of the annual SystemSpecs Children’s Day Essay Competition, has said winning ahead of thousands of other entrants from over 750 schools across Nigeria in the contest was a dream come true for him.

“I am happy I won. I have always looked forward to such a glorious time as this. I want to thank my teachers and my parents for their support,” he said.

He expressed this feeling as SystemSpecs, Africa’s leading financial, human capital management and e-commerce technology giant and owners of Remita, HumanManager and Paylink, recently presented prizes to winners of the 30th-anniversary edition of its annual Children’s Day Essay Competition at a ceremony which held physically and online.

Chinedu Amakhie, Executive Director, Russell-Smith (Left); John Obaro, Group Managing Director, SystemSpecs (Right) with the top three students in the junior category

Top winners, all of whom were present or represented at the venue of the event in Lagos, were presented with gifts that included tens of high-capacity laptops, top-notch headphones, free 3-month uLesson coding courses, 480-gigabyte internet data for one year, branded travel suite cases, unique keepsake hoodies, thermal flasks, school bags, among many others.

Aside from Temitayo-Ojo, another honourees is 15-year-old Ekemini Keziah Effiong-Robert of The African Church Model College, Ifako Agege, Lagos, who emerged in the first position of the senior category.

“When they broke the news that I had won the competition to me, I could not contain my excitement. I am delighted that I won and believe it will birth even more significant achievements for me,” said Effiong-Robert.

Line-up of special guests and SystemSpecs principal officers: L-R: Deremi Atanda, John Obaro, Chinedu Amakhie, Prof Lere Baale, and Demola Igbalajobi

Also among the top 3 in each category are 10-year-old Somadina Edeh of Independence Layout Nursery and Primary School, Enugu State and Chetachi Best Mbalu from Lagooz School, Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos State, who emerged second in the junior and senior categories respectively. 12-year-old Emmanuel Nkanu Nkanu of St Anne High School, Calabar, Cross River and 13-year-old David Nkereuwem of Holy Mary Comprehensive College, Benin City, Edo state also emerged third in the junior and senior categories respectively.

1. L-R: Shade Oluyinka Erinle, Principal of The African Church Model College, Ifako Alege, Lagos, winning school, senior category; Ekemini Keziah Effiong-Robert; John Obaro; and Chinedu Amakhie

Others who made the top 15 in each category of the competition will also receive consolatory prizes to encourage them to remain innovative. The competition had produced about 2,000 entries from both private and public primary and secondary schools across the country. This National Competition produced honour roll champions from the various geopolitical zones of the country.

The African Church Model College, Ifako Agege, Lagos and Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos, who produced winning entries in the senior and junior categories, respectively, received 20 and 10 high-capacity laptops per school.

Speaking on the feat of the champion from her school, Shade Oluyinka Erinle, principal of The African Church Model College, Ifako Agege, Lagos, expressed her excitement. “She has made us all proud,” she said, adding that the computers her school won would indeed add immense value to the school’s brand promise of delivering qualitative education.

“On this special day, we crowned the champions of this year’s SystemSpecs Children’s Day Essay Competition and the schools that produced them in recognition of the need to emphatically celebrate young talents that emerge from Nigeria who have the potential to transform our world.

“Not only have these young ones proffered solutions to some of Nigeria’s nagging challenges in the educational sector, but they also can champion the vision of a new and truly thriving country we all will be proud of,” said Oluwasegun Adesanya, Group Head, Corporate Services.

“With the ambience of the occasion and the tangible excitement of the winning participants, other students, teachers, principals, parents and well-wishers, we are once again reinvigorated to continue to impart the lives of Nigerians, young and old, irrespective of their location,” he added.

The annual SystemSpecs Children’s Day Essay Competition is part of SystemSpecs’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment towards advancing capacity development in Nigeria, with a specific focus on creating opportunities for young people across Nigeria to share fresh, bright, and original ideas capable of transforming our country for good.