By Tare Youdeowei

Set to be the winner of N7.5m five-year university scholar-ship, 11,412 students across the 36 states of the federation have sat for the qualifying exams to secure a place at the InterswitchSPAK National STEM competition.

According to figures released by the organisers, 47 per cent, 5,382, of registered students came from the South-West region. The South-South region had 1,764 registered students, North- Central region had 1,548 registered students, South-East coming close to that with 1,362 registered students while the North- West and North-East recorded less than 1,000 registered students. Lagos State topped the list with 2,280 registered students while states like Jigawa and Borno had 12 and 24 students respectively.

InterswitchSPAK revealed that the students were tested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, STEM, related subjects and “the best 81 students across the country will be selected to partake in the TV quiz competition where three students will eventually emerge as winners from the competition. The competition is a mix of education, technology and entertainment, structured to promote excellence and innovation and most importantly, secure the future of Nigerian students by encouraging them to focus on STEM education.”

InterswitchSPAK is an initiative of Interswitch, the digital payment and e-commerce company, under its Switcha-Future Foundation, that aims to promote the practical and theoretical learning of STEM subjects in Nigeria and also reward outstanding students that emerge from the competition.