Zain launches new Africa Challenge season

Addressing the media, Ikechukwu Kalu, head of segments, Zain Nigeria, said Zain Africa Challenge season four will follow the regular format of the programme and would feature a selection of universities that will participate in the new season, training of team coaches and liaisons (train the trainers programme), National Qualifier Championship, and the International Championship Festival in Kampala, Uganda.

Kalu explained that the Zain Africa Challenge is one of the major pillars of the company's corporate social responsibility programmes. Key objectives of the programme include the promotion of academic excellence in universities, enabling participating students build a network of long lasting relationships across the continent.
According to Kalu, the competition pique some of the best and brightest from Universities from the continent, adding that about 32 teams contest for institutional and individual prizes worth over US$1 million and Zain scholar's trophy.

The programme is broadcast on television across Africa. Also each episode features an audience participatory quiz contest, during which viewers are offered a chance to participate in the programme and win prizes.

He explained that 16 Universities have been selected for the National Qualifier Championship with the assistance of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the umbrella organisation which oversees the administration of higher education in Nigeria.

The five Nigerian universities participating in the Zain Africa Challenge International Championship Festival are expected to emerge from the group at the National Qualifier Championship.

The five universities, which represented Nigeria at the last edition of the International Championship Festival were seeded to participate in the qualifying competition and would be joined by 11 other universities selected by the NUC, he said.

Participating univesities in the last edition included Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Federal University of Tech. Akure; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; University of Lagos, Akoka and University of Ibadan.

The 11 new Universities are; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Bowen University; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; Katsina State University (now Musa Yar Adua University, Katsina; Niger Delta University; and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.

Others are University of Abuja; Ambrose Ali University; University of Calabar; University of Jos; and University of Maiduguri.

Some of the criteria employed by the NUC and the company in selecting participating universities include: regional spread, ownership status (for example federal, state, private ownership, sectarian and non-sectarian universities) and level of interest by universities, among others. Also, to be eligible for selection, a university must be government chartered or accredited, be in third year of intake (or later), and should have at least 250 enrolled students.

Universities that failed to advance beyond the last National Qualifier Championship were automatically eliminated from the competition.

Also speaking at the press conference, producer of the programme and representative of Zain's technical partner, Africa Challenge, Mary Oberembt, said the 2010 Zain Africa Challenge International Championship Festival will feature universities from West, East and Southern Africa countries where the telecom company operates.

Zain Africa Challenge is a fast-paced academic knockout quiz show which involves three students on each of two teams competing over four rounds.

When a player correctly answers a 10 point face-off question, his team gets an opportunity to answer a 20 point bonus question collectively. Each face-off round is approximately four minutes in length (three minutes in the computerised version and at the Qualifying Tournaments). At the end of the third round both teams enter the Ultimate Challenge Round where they attempt to answer 10 questions in 60 seconds, with each correct answer giving the team 50 points.

The University of Ibadan is the defending champion of the competition.