FirstBank of Nigeria Limited has partnered with Junior Achievement Nigeria to implement the 22nd National Company of the Year (NCOY) competition which will be held on Thursday, 13th October 2022.
The annual flagship event which was last held physically in 2019 will bring together 12 winning student companies from the Regional Company of the Year competition to compete for the National Company of the Year award sponsored by First Bank of Nigeria Limited. The winner of the National Company of the Year competition will proceed further to represent Nigeria at the Junior Achievement Africa’s Company of the Year (ACOY) competition.
The goal of the Junior Achievement Company Program is to inspire senior secondary school students to start and run their own business(es), develop a product or service, and market their brand. With the support of seasoned volunteers, students come together to form a company, choose a business name and elect company officers to oversee the operations of the company for the programme duration. These activities help them hone some in-demand skills like creativity, accountability, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking and public speaking needed to succeed in this competition and thrive globally. In the end, the student companies present the results of their enterprise before a panel of judges.
The judges for this year’s competition are: Osayi Alile -CEO, Aspire Coronation Trust(ACT) Foundation; Molade Adeniyi -CEO, Wave; Nneka Itabor, Head, Transaction Banking Sales, Commercial Banking, FirstBank; Afolake Oredola, Business Manager, Commercial Banking, FirstBank; Uchenna Achunine, Director, Business Development and Communications, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF); David Adegboyega – Sound Character Coach & Nation Builder; Femi Iromini – Co-founder/CEO Moni Africa.
According to the Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria, Foluso Gbadamosi: “We are glad that the National Company of the Year competition will once again be held physically after 2 years of being virtual. We are eager to see the tremendous business solutions and enterprises that our young leaders have doggedly built. More than ever, it is extremely important to equip young people for a global economy and we are grateful to selfless minds in the form of people and organizations who have partnered with us on this mission.”
FirstBank’s Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Folake Ani-Mumuney, said “We commend Junior Achievement Nigeria for organizing the 22nd edition of the National Company of the Year Competition, a competition that has been impactful in promoting the entrepreneurship skills, spirit and talent innate in school children, whom are unarguably the leaders of tomorrow.
