The Managing Director/CEO, UBA Foundation, Ms Ijeoma Aso, made the call while flagging off this year’s edition of the ‘Read Africa initiative’,a project of the UBA Foundation aimed at encouraging students across Africa to rekindle their interest in reading.

The flag off of this year’s reading series took place at the Dolphin High School, Ikoyi, Lagos where the students played host to a team of senior management staff from UBA to a reading a mentoring session.

The “Read Africa Initiative” is aimed at instilling awareness among students on the need to develop a passion for reading. Led by Ms. Aso, the UBA team took turns to read from a book titled “What Sunny saw in the Flames” by Nnedi Okorafor with the students.

“It is important that as students you develop a reading habit, not only for the purpose of studying to pass your examinations but also for pleasure and expanding your knowledge and vocabulary.” Aso told the students. She also advised the students to create ample time to focus on reading to expand their knowledge of the world and their surroundings.

“I want to challenge you to also dare yourselves to read a minimum of one book every month” she said.

Another member of the UBA team at the reading session, Mrs Bola Attah, the Director, Marketing and Corporate Communication, UBA Africa, also took the students through a mentoring session advising the students to endeavor to read different books to improve their versatility. Citing an example from her own childhood, she said, ‘’I developed a passion for reading, particularly romantic stories. This really helped me in nurturing lasting impressions about life generally.”

The students expressed their appreciation to the UBA Foundation team for visiting the school and sharing their valuable time with the students.

Speaking on behalf of the students, Miss Adepeju Barakat thanked UBA for the kind gesture, promising that they will adhere to the advise and devote more time to reading.

At the end of the mentoring and reading sessions, the UBA team donated copies of the book ’ What Sunny saw In the Flames ‘ by Nnedi Okorafor and UBA branded school bags to all participating students at the session.

The ‘Read Africa ‘ Initiative is a project of the UBA Foundation geared towards improving the reading culture among young African students. First introduced to schools across Africa in 2014, the initiative has touched hundreds of schools across Africa with thousands of books by top African authors given free of charge to participating schools.

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