Three schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), yesterday won the Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) 2014 Project Exhibition and Award for secondary schools in the northern region.
The exhibition which 22 schools registered for had Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Abaji, winning the overall first position for their product known as the ‘Pink Lady.’ which is made from twine made into various sizes of bags ranging from school bags, lady purse, shopping bags and hand bags while also winning the award for the best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Model Secondary School, Maitama and Federal Science and Technical College, Orozo, took the second and third positions respectively. Model exhibited ethanol and methanol produced from waste, briquettes made from the recycling of saw dust while Technical college, Orozo, produced palm slippers, bags made from beads, sweaters, liquid wash and antiseptics.
Speaking with journalists, the national programme coordinator of Junior Achievement Nigeria, Mrs. Franca Nnaji Thomas, said the three winners would go to Lagos for the national competition with other regions in October and the winner from that competition would represent Nigeria in the Junior Achievement Africa competition in Gabon by December where 18 other countries would be competing for the overall winner of the Africa Company of the year.
“JAN is present in over 120 countries over the world and every country has their company program, for us in Nigeria, we are into entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. The company program is for a group of 30 students to come together, form a company, get a company name, select a board of directors, raise capital, sell shares, then look at their environment and see a product or service they could go into, then liquidate the company, give dividends back to shareholders and also do a social responsibility service.”
The president of GGSS Abaji Company, Miss Mariyam Gambo Zakari, said the exercise had encouraged her to be determined and not to be afraid of joblessness after school as she had learnt enough to make her self-employed.
“I have learnt a lot of thing, most importantly, no more fear of unemployment after school and have learn how to choose a career for myself,” she said.
