Soyinka for Lafarge Africa National Literacy Competition final

Lafarge Africa Plc has announced the Nobel Laureate and iconic Nigerian Playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka, as the keynote speaker for the finals of its 2018 Lafarge National Literacy Competition (LANLC) slated for Nov.15.

Mrs Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, the Director of Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development of Lafarge, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Lagos.

Ambrose-Medebem said that Soyinka would be a source of inspiration to new generation of Nigerians.

“We are especially pleased to have Prof. Wole Soyinka as our keynote speaker this year as he will be a source of inspiration for a new generation of Nigerians,” she said.

LANLC is an intervention in Nigeria’s education sector in line with the company’s ambitious sustainability strategy which complements the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4- Quality Education.

It will cut across all the 109 senatorial districts in all the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT working with implementation partners- State Universal Basic Education Commissions (SUBEBs), Ovie Brume Foundation, ThistlePraxis and TruContact.

Theme of the 2018 competition is: “Bridging the Literacy Gap Together.”

Ambrose-Medebem said that the competition had been endorsed by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education in charge of basic education nationwide education intervention.

She said that educational grants were given to the winning pupils to support their primary and secondary education, while indigent students get exposure and travel out of their communities for the competition.

Ambrose-Medebem said that objective of the competition was to create more literacy enhancement opportunities for indigent students across Nigeria.

“We have been doing this successfully for the past five years; we are quite happy with the positive impact we have made so far.

“LANLC is part of our overall sustainable development strategy, the LafargeHolcim 2030 Plan.

“It has four action pillars- Climate, Circular Economy, Water and Nature and People & Communities- each with specific actions and targets to ensure we achieve our ambitions.

“We are also very proud of the partnerships, helping us scale our impact including Oando Foundation, UNESCO Abuja regional office and the British Council,” she said.

Ambrose-Medebem said that the company had been organising the competition for the past four years to “Bridge the Literacy Gap”.

According to her, it is also to support government efforts in raising the standard of literacy among pupils in public primary schools between the ages of nine and 13 years.

“Since the inception of the competition, over 500,000 primary school pupils in 886 schools across 544 local government areas have been impacted,” she said.