Diamond Bank Plc has launched a project tagged, "The National Prep Challenge," with the objective of stemming the high failure rate among students sitting for school leaving and matriculation examinations across the country.
National Prep Challenge
The project, which will be executed through a mobile application developed in partnership with GidiMobile, is designed to provide an engaging platform where students can readily access preparatory questions as they prepare for examinations such as Senior Secondary School Examinations (SSCE), General Certificate Examinations (GCE), National Examinations Council(NECO) and the University Matriculation Examination (UME).
To make the learning process interesting, Diamond Bank has built a reward system into the project. Speaking at the launch, Jude Anele, Head, Retail Banking, Diamond Bank PLC, said that the National Prep Challenge is aimed at making learning exciting for youths as they are the leaders of tomorrow.
According to him, "As a youth-focused bank, Diamond Bank is always seeking avenues to add value to this segment of society and we take issues that impact their future seriously. Among other alternatives, we decided to focus on education given the worrisome failure rates recorded at regional examinations over the years. From research, we discovered that mobile phones are one of the primary distractions for students given the high addictive tendency, so we started exploring ways of using the technology to drive value. It is in the process that we came up with National Prep Challenge mobile app, while working in partnership with GidiMobile."
The Diamond Bank National Prep Challenge mobile app, he noted, can be downloaded on Internet-enabled phones and tablets from anywhere in Nigeria. It is free. “You do not need to have a Diamond Bank account in order to use it as it is our intervention in what is becoming a national calamity," he explained. "In addition, as students correctly answer the questions, they earn points and the highest scorers for each week are rewarded with airtime, movie tickets and soon. It is a very novel and exciting way to learn."
Mrs. Ayona Trimnell, Divisional Head, Corporate Communications, Diamond Bank PLC, explained that the bank is continually introducing innovative products to ensure that the youth segment is empowered not only financially, but also academically. She said:
"At Diamond Bank, we are committed to making our young customers competitive on the global stage. The National Prep Challenge is open to all students preparing for national examinations and will be available on Africa's first mobile learning platform - 'Gidimo'. Our goal is to create a national movement to ensure that our children prepare adequately for their exams and, consequently, form good study habits. Students who participate in the challenge will be rewarded based on their performance and rankings."
Dr. Tunji Adegbesan, Founder & Amp; Strategy Mentor, Gidi Mobile Ltd, creators of Gidimo, noted that the National Prep Challenge is a timely intervention to address the challenge of poor access to exam preparatory resources which is one of the main causes of failure. He also disclosed that the application is accessible to students living in rural areas as these make up about sixty percent of mobile users in Nigeria. He continued: "We have brought these resources to meet students wherever they are and hope that they will tap into it to add value to themselves, their parents and society.
Gidimo boasts about thirty thousand questions across fifteen subject areas drawn from SSCE, GCE, NECO and UME. By the time a student goes through one thousand questions he/she would have covered fifteen past question papers. All the technology driving this application was developed in Nigeria and we are confident that it will significantly contribute to our local educational needs."
Gidimo can be downloaded from get.gidimo.com and mobile app stores. It is currently available on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Java enabled devices and will be available on iOS later in the year.
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