Zain Africa University Challenge Hits Screen

Nigerians now have the opportunity to watch local universities test their academic prowess against the best universities from across Africa in an International inter-varsity battle of brains, broadcast on national TV.
The battle of wits, which features the brightest university students from across Africa, is a TV based quiz show sponsored by Zain, under its education promotion/social investment banner - Zain Africa Challenge.
The show, the first ever televised pan African educational contest amongst university students will be broadcast every Tuesday (7.30pm-8.00pm) and Thursday (5.30-6.00pm) on AIT and DSTV Channel 132.
Nigeria’s hope of climbing to the top spot of the academic ladder in Africa and winning the whopping over $1,000,000 in cash prizes, travel grants and educational materials is hinged on five universities according to Emeka Oparah, Zain Nigeria’s spokesman.
These institutions include University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Federal University of Technology, Akure, University of Lagos and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi.
UI, UNN, FUTA and ATBU emerged top at the National Zain Africa Challenge qualifier championship held in Abuja, beating 16 other Universities. The University of Lagos, which also participated in the national qualifier, won a wild card to complete Nigeria’s slots at the International Championship Festival.
These Nigerian Institutions have now joined universities from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia in Kampala, Uganda for the festival, which pitches 32 leading Universities against each other.
The academic quiz game covers a wide range of subjects including: History, Science, African Culture, Geography, Literature, Music and current affairs.
 “Zain Africa Challenge which is a fast-paced academic knockout quiz show involves three students on each of two teams competing over four rounds.  During each of the first three rounds, one student from each of the two teams compete head-to-head, playing face-off questions.  The players rotate between rounds so that each of the three players gets an opportunity to compete in one face-off round,” Oparah explained. 
“When a player correctly answers a 10 point face-off question, his team gets an opportunity to answer a 20 point bonus question collectively.  Each face-off round is approximately 4 minutes in length (3 minutes in the computerized version and at the qualifying tournaments).  At the end of the third round both teams enters the ultimate challenge round where they attempt to answer 10 questions in 60 seconds with each correct answer giving the team 50 points.”
"This programme is not just about providing brilliant young people an opportunity to showcase their academic prowess and build a lifelong relationship with people across the continent.”
Zain Africa Challenge is part of the mobile operator’s corporate social investment of corporate social responsibility programmes designed to help Nigerians see, experience and appreciate its philosophy of “a Wonderful World,” he added.
To be eligible for selection, a university must be government accredited, be in 3rd year of intake (or later), and should have at least 250 enrolled students.