In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2026, Orimu Senior Model College emerged victorious at the Ardova Plc Girls Debate Competition, a platform designed to empower young female voices and encourage critical thinking among public secondary school students.
The competition, organised by Ardova Plc as part of its commitment to promoting gender equality and educational development, brought together girls from various areas of the Lagos State education districts to debate pressing social and developmental issues on Thursday.
After a series of intellectually engaging rounds, Orimu Senior Model College, Ikorodu, stood out for its exceptional arguments, confidence, and teamwork, clinching the top position in the maiden edition of the contest.
Oregun Senior High School, GRA Ikeja, emerged the first runner-up, while Ayedere Ajibola Senior Secondary School clinched the second runner-up position.
Ikeja Senior High School, GRA, and Eva Adelaja Girls Senior Secondary School maintained the third- and fourth-runner-up positions, respectively.
For emerging winners, Orimu Senior Model College, Ikorodu, received a prize of N250,000, a high-end sound system for the school, and a HP desktop computer. Oregun Senior High School, GRA Ikeja, were rewarded with a prize money of N200,000 and one sound system for the school for emerging first runner-up.
Ayedere Ajibola Senior Secondary School got N150,000 prize money and a sound system for the school, while Ikeja Senior High School, GRA, received the sum of N100,000 and a sound system for the school, and Eva Adelaja Girls Senior Secondary School got N50,000 prize money.
Moshud Olajide, managing director at Ardova Plc, explained that the schools were chosen randomly with the help of the Lagos State Education Ministry; however, he emphasised that the main criterion was public girls’ secondary schools because International Women’s Day is for females.
“The critical things we considered was one, it had to be public school, and two, it had to be girls.
“We did this in collaboration with the Ministry of Education across the districts; hence, you can see that the students are from different parts of Lagos State,” he said.
Olajide said there are possibility of expansion of the competition to more schools in subsequent years, depending on how the 2026 event pans out.
He emphasised that the organisers are concerned most about the girl- child education, stressing the need for access to soft skills education, because as the leaders of tomorrow, they will require more soft skills than technical skills.
He called on other organisations to engage in such a venture, saying, “Our perspective is that everybody should do their little bit to ensure that we give to gain, as the theme of this year’s event is.
“We employ a lot of organisations to join us and join the government in putting together programmes that can help women generally, and it’s always better to catch them young.”
Abiola Babatunde-Ojo, the deputy managing director at Ardova Plc, emphasising on the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, which is “Give to Gain”, said the organisation believes that when you invest in girls, by giving to them, what you reap is a future.
Babatunde-Ojo disclosed that the competition was geared toward bridging the opportunity gap between students in public and private schools.
“By doing this, we inspire the girls to have a future to look up to. We decided to go into this debate particularly for public schools because we realised that most of these public schools have a lot of students, but they do not have platforms which their contemporaries in private schools have. So, what we have decided to do is to bring them in and give them the opportunity.
“When you give them opportunities like this, you give them a voice, build confidence in them, and by building confidence in girls, you’re investing in the future. And when you invest in the future of girls, you’re building a strong society, a strong community, which eventually will bring about strong institutions in the economy,” she said.
She reiterated that the aim is for Ardova Plc to invest in girls who would see themselves as future leaders, build confidence in them, and eventually help bring and build societies that will build strong institutions in the economy.