Ecobank, NCF declare June for school chess tourney, N20m cash prize involved
From Left: Babatunde Ogunsiku, CEO, Africa Chess Media; Adebukola Ademiluyi, Head, Education, Faith and Social Services, Ecobank Nigeria; Prince Adewole Adeyinka, Vice President, Nigerian Chess Federation; Oyinye Ikenna Emeka, Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Nigeria and Dele Alabi, Head, Global Corporates at the Media Conference
Ecobank, NCF declare June for school chess tourney, N20m cash prize involved
Following the highly anticipated 2025 Ecobank National Schools Teams Chess Championship, the Nigeria Chess Federation, in collaboration with its partners, has officially announced June 26 to 28 as the dates for the tournament’s second edition.
The announcement was made during a press briefing held on Friday at the Ecobank Headquarters in Lagos, where organisers also revealed details of the prize money and other incentives for participating teams.
Speaking at the event, the Vice President of the Nigeria Chess Federation, Adeyinka Adewole, emphasised the tournament’s key objective: identifying and nurturing young chess talents from across the country, with the long-term goal of producing future grandmasters.
He further noted that the competition is open to institutions at all academic levels—primary, secondary, and tertiary—providing a unique platform for students nationwide to showcase their skills and passion for the game.
He said, “We are expecting over 500 schools, which is going to be over 2,000 children that will be playing and we want to identify talents. There will be a lot of players who have never actually played in different tournaments. So we cannot identify a lot of talents out there. But this tournament will make us to be able to identify those talents. That’s the primary objective.
“So, in Nigeria, when you talk about development, employment or rather unemployment is one of the major problems. A tournament like this will recruit almost 100 habitants and those habitants become indirectly employed. If tomorrow Nigeria is able to actually pass a bill and say that it’s mandatory for chess to be played in schools, what that means is that there is a need for recruitment of teachers in various schools, professional teachers in various schools. So imagine the number of schools you have in Nigeria and imagine the number of jobs that will be created. So that’s a very major problem that we are using chess to solve in Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Head of the Education, Faith and Social Services for ECOBANK Nigeria, Adebukola Ademuluyi, revealed why the organisation is backing the tournament.
She said, “As a truly Pan-African bank, our decision to partner once again with the Nigerian Chess Federation for this championship stems from our deep commitment to support both intellectual and sports development in Nigeria. This partnership forms a key part of our broader human capital strategy.
“Our involvement also aligns with our corporate social responsibility philosophy, which prioritizes initiatives that contribute to the development of Nigeria’s economy,” Ademuluyi added.
The organisers also announced a prize money of N20m which will be split across all the categories with nine championship trophies to be handed out to deserving winners across all cadres and categories, as well as certificates of participation.
