Lagos, (Nigeria), November 2021 – 10 years later, JA Nigeria is still empowering young vibrant entrepreneurs in partnership with FirstBank Nigeria through its annual flagship event, the National Company of the Year (NCOY) competition. On Saturday, 27th of November, 2021 students from across the country competed virtually for the coveted title of National Company of the Year (NCOY).

The competition is the capstone component of the yearlong JA Company Program® tailored towards inspiring young people to develop a profitable and creative business solution that could solve problems in their community. The students are given the opportunity to develop critical thinking, speaking, teamwork/collaboration and leadership skills while demonstrating their innovation, grit and boundless potential of the Nigerian Youth.

The event was attended by special guests such as Aishah Ahmad, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria; Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, Senior Special Assistant (Digital Transformation) to The President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and Otuekong Ukut, Permanent Secretary, Technical Schools Board, Akwa Ibom State, had students compete against peers from across the country with KereTerra student company from Secondary School (Etoi, Akwa Ibom) emerging as the best student company and will be representing Nigeria at the African Regional JA Company of the Year (ACOY) Competition in Q1 2022. Sonic Informatics student company from Heritage Global Academy (Ikorodu, Lagos State) clinched the 1st runner-up position while The Exploit Thinkers student company from Taidob College (Abeokuta, Ogun State) emerged as the 2nd runner up. The most innovative award and Corporate Social Responsibility award goes to Sonic Informatics student company from Heritage Global Academy (Ikorodu, Lagos State) and KereTerra student company from Secondary School (Etoi, Akwa Ibom) respectively.

Below is a list of all participating students companies:

• Amazing Amazon student company from Government Girls’ Secondary School (Abaji, Abuja) developed Amazing LifeLine; a mobile blood bank
• Artisans student company from Igbobi College (Yaba, Lagos State), developed Artizans – an app that connects artisans to residents
• Blue crystal student company from Methodist Girls School (PortHarcourt, Rivers State), made Blender and rain resistant bags
• JA Stars student company from Theological College of Northern Nigeria, (Bukuru, Plateau State) developed the Star lamp (the concept of Waste2Wealth)
• KereTerra student company from Secondary School (Etoi, Akwa Ibom) produced KereTerra Bags and Purses – Overall Winner & Corporate Social Responsibility award winner
• Mystic Global student company from Rosa Mystica High School, (Agulu, Anambra)

produced Mystic Black Exfoliating; soaps to reduce skin inflammation

• Nexus Queens student company from Queens School (Ibadan, Oyo State) developed a plastic-bottle Ottoman (the concept of Waste2Wealth)
• PetraMech Tech student company from Petra Schools (Ota, Ogun State), developed PetraMech Connect; a web-based platform to connect road users to mechanics so they never get stranded
• Sonic Informatics student company from Heritage Global Academy (Ikorodu, Lagos State) developed an automated waste detector. – 1st runner-up and Most Innovative Award Winner
• The Amazing Inventors student company from Government Secondary School (Tudun Wada, Plateau State), developed a Human Motion Detector; security device to detect human movement/intrusion
• The Exploit Thinkers student company from Taidob College (Abeokuta, Ogun State) developed Multi-level Detector – 2nd runner-up
• The Seer student company from Alvana High School (Owerri, Imo State) developed Seer; an anti-intruder security device that monitors and triggers an alarm when it detects an intruder.

The competition was judged by a panel made up of judges: Oludolapo F. Adigun, Group Head, Retail Banking Lagos & West, FirstBank Nigeria; Chidimma Juliana Okparah, Project Management Consultant (PMIEF); Chiedozie Dike, Sales Engineer, Emerson Automation Solutions; ‘Simbo Olatoregun, Policy Programs Manager for Meta (Facebook) in Africa and Sheila Ojei, Head of Communications, Jobberman Nigeria.

JA Nigeria also took the opportunity to celebrate the volunteers, teachers and schools that had distinguished themselves during the year with  Queens School, Ibadan sweeping all three categories. fFor the Volunteer of the Year, Teacher of the Year and School of the year emerged where Kehinde Oluwabunmi emerged Volunteer of the Year, Physics Teacher Mr. Subair I. Olayinka emerged Teacher of the year and Queens School, Ibadan emerged school of the year.

Commenting on this year’s competition, the Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria, Foluso Gbadamosi said: “The National Company of the Year Company competition provides our students with a platform to show how innovative they are while displaying their dexterity and grit especially as it relates to creating sustainable business solutions to problems in their immediate community. The students have learned critical skills during the implementation of the Company Program and we are proud to celebrate them as they compete in the National competition. I would like to specially appreciate FirstBank Nigeria for their continued support and belief in the boundless potential of young Nigerians.”

The Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, 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 the past 11 years”.

About Junior Achievement Nigeria

Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) is part of Junior Achievement Worldwide (JAWW), the world’s largest and fastest-growing non-profit economic education organization with a 120-country network. Since its inception in 1999, JAN has reached over one million students in over 20,000 classrooms in all the 36 states across the country and the FCT  through over 5000 volunteers. As part of a global network, JAN can leverage resources and expertise to deliver localized cutting-edge experiential programs built on JAWW’s three pillars of work Readiness, Entrepreneurship, and Financial literacy, to in- and out-of-school youths, ages 5 to 27, free of charge.

For more information, visit www.ja-nigeria.org

About FirstBank

First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 127 years.

With over 750 business locations and over 130,620 Banking Agents spread across 99% of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services to serve its over 30 million customers. The Bank has an international presence through its subsidiaries, FBNBank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.