As part of its corporate
social responsibility to the society, the United Bank of Africa (UBA) has donated books worth  millions  of  naira to some schools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State as part of its contributions to encourage reading culture among pupils and students in secondary and primary schools in the state.
The books donated include Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, Rudiments to Physics by Owate among others.
Presenting the books at the St Mary’s Secondary School and Emarid College in their respective schools, in Port Harcourt, over the weekend, the  Head, Regional Banking,, UBA, Mrs Boma Okaka, said the programme which is tagged “2013 Read African Initiative” was aimed at rekindling the reading culture among African youths.
She remarked that the programme was the initiative of the bank through its foundation.
Mrs Okaka disclosed that the programme was launched in 2011 as a way of giving back to the society, especially in areas of its business operation.
She called on the benefiting schools to make judicious use of the books  to enrich their knowledge.
“The objective of this programme is to reawaken the reading culture among the youths.  Read the books to develop yourselves and become better to the society”, she stated.
Also speaking at the programme, a former Commissioner for Education in the state, Prof Israel Owijima Owate charged the students to read their books in other to become useful tools in the development of the society.
Professor Owate told the students that they could only achieve their success in life when they indulge in the habit of reading, adding that through reading, they would discover their hidden potentials and talents.
The former Education Commissioner noted that the social media had done more harm than good in the society describing the social media as a distractor to reading culture.
He lauded the bank for taken the initiative to encourage youths to read as well as donating books in that regard and called on other organisations doing business to emulate the bank to contribute their own quota in the development of the society.
Responding, the Principal of St Mary’s Secondary School, Rev Sister Boreda Chilaka and the Vice Principal Academics, Emarid College,  Mr Jacob Nte thanked the bank for the gesture and promised judicious use of the books.