UBA Launches 2nd Read Africa Project

The United Bank for Africa Plc, UBA yesterday launched the second edition of its Read Africa Project aimed at championing the reading culture across Africa.

Read Africa is under the auspices of the UBA Foundation and aimed at rekindling the reading culture among youths.

For this year’s project, the classic literature book, Weep Not, Child written by the renowned Kenyan author, Prof. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o will be distributed to secondary schools by the UBA management staff and others, who will mentor and hold reading sessions with school children.

Chief Executive Officer, UBA Foundation, Ijeoma Aso, at the launch held at UBA House, Marina, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, said through this initiative, literature books procured by the foundation would be distributed to students of secondary schools in Nigeria and other African countries.

She lamented the dwindling culture of reading among African youths, saying the foundation was ready to blaze the trail to ensure that it restored the reading culture among youths.

Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, UBA Plc, Philips Oduoza stressed that capacity building and development of education in the country was fundamental without which the future would be bleak.

He challenged the youths to imbibe the culture of reading, saying that they would only be able to get to the top through hardwork and discipline, and that the bank had a goal to impact positively on the lives of youths by building their reading culture.

“When we were growing up, we had little distraction; there were no internet, computer and the rest. We want to go back to the basics and get it right. We are doing the Read Africa project across Africa.

“We want the youths to concentrate on their studies and don’t spend your time on the computer. Go back and take time to read. The adults should assist these children to read,” he told the youths.

Launching the 2012 Read Africa, Minister of Education, Prof. Rukayat Rufai said good reading skills lead students to become successful learners, adding that the skill to comprehend written language was very important in academic life.

Prof Rufai, who was represented by Nelly Ibukun-Oyewole, challenged students to imbibe the culture of reading as it would stimulate them to be creative and innovative, adding that “the more we read, the more ideas and concepts come to mind.”

Also speaking at the event, Thiong’o said while property and material things could be taken away from someone, “what you have in mind cannot be taken away from you. Imagination is integral to our lives. Reading books nourishes our imagination.

He added: “The more we read, the more we nourish our imagination and the less we read, the narrow our imagination,” while challenging the youths to imbibe the culture of reading and become young authors.

  —Kazeem Ugbodaga