The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) is poised to institute a national competition to promote copyright knowledge amongst youths and school children, while also highlighting the role of the creative sector in national development.

According to the Director-General of NCC, Mr. John O. Asein, the copyright awareness competition will be part of programmes lined up by the Commission to celebrate the creative industries and their contributions to national growth as the country marks its 60th independence anniversary in 2020.

He made this known sequel to the Spelling Bee competition jointly organised by NCC and Spelling Bee Nigeria for selected secondary schools in Lagos. The competition, which held at the Lagos office of the Commission on November 22, was part of activities marking its 30th anniversary.

“The Commission will intensify its engagement with youths and school children. It will increase the number of copyright clubs for awareness campaign in schools and vigorously pursue its goal of reaching out to one million school children with its simple copyright learning kit: ‘What is Copyright?’ as part of its mass education strategy,” the DG stated.

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Victoria High School emerged the overall winner of the Spelling Bee Competition out of the four selected secondary schools comprising eight spellers, two from each school. Moderated by a representative of Spelling Bee Nigeria, Gbenga Omotosho and Head of Prosecution Unit of NCC, Lagos office, Mrs. Linda Alpheus, other participants in the competition were Yabatech Secondary School, Eric Moore High School and Fountain Height School, Lagos.

The Director-General, who was represented on the occasion by Deputy Director/State Coordinator of NCC, Michael Dada Ojo, commended the participants for their willingness and courage to participate in the competition. He charged the students to be of exemplary conduct and avoid patronising pirated books.

According to him, the Commission would soon be visiting the schools that participated in the competition to set up copyright clubs for easier dissemination of copyright knowledge. He noted that the planned national copyright competition would boost the copyright knowledge of youths and school children, and assist them to better appreciate the value of the creative sector and the immense repertoire of Nigerian creative works.

At the end of the competition, Victoria High School clinched a plaque and cash prize of N20,000; the first runner-up, Fountain Height School received a plaque and cash prize of N15,000; while the second runner-up, Yabatech Secondary School was presented with a plaque and cash prize of N10,000. The third runner-up, Eric Moore High School was presented with a plaque and N5,000. Their teachers and coaches also received honorariums.