Your Excellency, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, Deputy Governor of Lagos State
The Chairman of Council, Prof. J. A. S. Redwood-Sawyerr
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Lagos State
Other Permanent Secretaries

Representative of the Education Trust Fund (ETF)
Members of the Board of Trustees of the WAEC Endowment Fund
Chief Government Nominee of Nigeria on Council
Chief Government Nominee of Sierra Leone on Council
Head of National Office, WAEC Sierra Leone
Head of National Office, WAEC Nigeria
Members of the Quiz Organizing Committee
Contestants
Invited Guests
Gentlemen of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is with joy and happiness that I welcome you all to this special occasion of the official launch of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Endowment Fund Quiz Competition. I extend a particularly warm welcome to Her Excellency, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, for the honour done the Council by accepting to personally attend this occasion.  The West African Examinations Council is West Africa’s foremost examining board established by law to determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authorities the world over.

By this mandate, the Council is expected to:

• assist in the development of sound education;
• ensure that educational standards are maintained; and
• give the people of West Africa a vision of the great potentials which lie beyond examinations.

The Council’s Vision is to be a world-class examination body, adding value to the educational goals of its numerous stakeholders. Its Mission is to remain West Africa’s foremost examining body, developing and maintain internationally accepted procedures in examinations, providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment, encouraging academic and moral excellence among the youth, and promoting sustainable human resource development, mutual understanding and international cooperation.

The WAEC Endowment Fund was inaugurated in March 1982. The Fund is administered by a Board of Trustees which examines and approves proposed projects.  The Board is made up of the Chairman of Council, leaders of the five-country delegations, one distinguished personality from each member country and the Registrar to Council.

The objects of the Fund include the promotion of educational development projects of an international nature, related to the objectives of the Council; provision of funds for awards to candidates for outstanding performance in the examinations conducted by the Council; recognition and rewarding of persons/institutions who/which have made outstanding contributions to the work of the Council; funding of educational research into aptitude testing and standardization of continuous assessment; development of integrated curricula and syllabuses; development of textbooks; and funding of any other projects that are relevant in the furtherance of the aims and objectives of the Fund. 

These objects of the Fund are hinged on the Council’s Vision and Mission of promoting academic excellence and adding value to the educational goals of its numerous stakeholders.

Over the years, the WAEC Endowment Fund has sponsored the Annual Endowment Fund Lecture. The first in the series was delivered in March 1996 and the fifteenth in March 2010. Also on an annual basis, the Fund has, over the years, provided the required funding for the Awards for outstanding performance in the Council’s examinations as well as the Distinguished Friend of Council Award. The Endowment Fund Quiz Competition which is being launched today is the latest addition to the list of educational development projects of international nature sponsored by the Fund. It is pertinent to state here that in 2007, the Fund in collaboration with Prime Time Ltd., Ghana, sponsored the West African Science and Mathematics Quiz Competition. The contestants at that competition were drawn from Ghana and Nigeria.  

Ladies and Gentlemen, the key objects of the Mandate, Vision and Mission of WAEC include assisting in the development of sound education in West Africa, promoting academic excellence and giving the people of the West African sub-region a vision of the great potentials which lie beyond examinations. The Council is using every available avenue, including this academic competition, to pursue these key objects.

The Council believes that the WAEC Endowment Fund Quiz Competition will not be just a highly rewarding academic exercise for both the competitors and the audience, but will promote the study and popularity of Science and Mathematics in secondary schools in West Africa, and also serve as a means of fostering understanding, unity and co-operation among the member countries of WAEC. To this end, adequate arrangements have been made for the full telecast of this competition in the five Member Countries of the Council – Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia.  Every effort will also be made to ensure that all the Member Countries participate in future editions of the competition.  

Your Excellency, to emerge as representatives of their respective countries at this two-day competition, the eight contestants have gone through a series of contests from the Ward to the National levels. For them, therefore, the road to this international stage of the competition must have been long and perhaps rough, but they have emerged as the national champions. I therefore want to congratulate them on their qualifying to represent their respective countries at this competition. I urge them to put in their very best during this two-day competition to justify the confidence reposed in them as worthy ambassadors of their countries. I must, however, hasten to enjoin them not to allow the import of the competition in promoting a healthy competition to be lost on them. Win or lose, they must know that they are children of West Africa and not just of Nigeria or Sierra Leone.

At this point, I must, on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the WAEC Endowment Fund, and indeed on behalf of the Council, express my sincere appreciation to all those who have made various contributions in support of this maiden edition of the WAEC Endowment Fund Quiz Competition.  Our special appreciation goes to the following organizations for their notable contribution:

Fleet Technologies Ltd.    
Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Ltd.
Nigerian Life and Pensions – Pension Fund Administrators Ltd.
Academy Press Nig. Ltd.
Data Sciences Nigeria Ltd.
Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.
Sunnet Systems
Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria Plc.

Your Excellency, I thank you once again for the strength of your support for the Council as manifested in your finding time to be here in person despite your very tight schedule.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all for extending to us the privilege of your presence at this Opening Ceremony. I urge you to stay back to witness the competition itself. You will surely find the experience to be worth the while.

Thank you all and God bless.