Following the introduction of special education incentive for every goal scored at the just concluded National Championship of the Airtel Rising Stars Under-17 Football National Competition by leading telecommunications operator, Airtel Nigeria, twelve primary schools in local communities across the six geo-political zones of the country have been chosen as beneficiaries of the initiative.
The company had offered $100 for every goal scored during match regulation time at the National Finals where 192 players comprising 12 male and female teams drawn from six zones across the nation slugged it out for the trophies.
At the keenly contested tournament, a total of 20 goals were scored from 14 matches played by both the male and female teams.
Combined efforts from Team Kaduna yielded 5 goals to tie with Team Port Harcourt. Ibadan teams secured 4 goals, while Lagos netted a total of 3 goals.
Enugu boys and girls recorded 2 goals apiece, while the representatives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) trailed the rest with a single goal.
According to Airtel’s Director of Corporate Communications and CSR, Emeka Oparah, the respective team Coaches will receive the aggregated monetary value due their teams to purchase books and other relevant school items for donation to the pupils of the selected schools in their domain.
Oparah said all the donations pan-Nigeria will take place on resumption of the new academic year in September.
Said he: “The Goal-for-Education” initiative is intended to complement what we are doing in Adopt-a-School programme, our CSR platform. The idea is to send the monetary value of the goals scored at the Airtel National finals and donate it to selected schools to open doors to under-privileged children who ordinarily would have no access to quality education. Airtel Nigeria is passionate about laying a solid educational foundation for Nigerian children.”
The ARS National U-17 Championship finals which held penultimate weekend at the Agege stadium saw the Port Harcourt male and female teams dust their rivals to the trophies.
The Port Harcourt female team emerged 2-1 victorious over their opponents from Ibadan to retain the trophy for the third season.
In the same vein, the male team took off from where their female counterpart left off as they reclaimed the trophy they last won two seasons ago at Campos Square by up-staging the Ibadan team 2-0.
In the third place matches played earlier, Kaduna defeated FCT Queens 5-4 to retain the trophy they won last season in the female category while team Lagos won their first ever ARS medal 5-3 against their Kaduna counterparts.
The Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tourney, in its third year running, is a pan African initiative of Airtel Africa, designed to provide support for the development of football talents across African markets.
