Egerton University of Kenya wins Zain Africa Challenge

After fifteen weeks of intense brain-racking academic exercise, Egerton University of Kenya walked away with pride as the undisputed champions of the 2010 Zain Africa Challenge competition, Africa's top television quiz show.

The curtain on season four (4) of the popular inter-university intellectual quiz show came down over the weekend following a tension-soaked final encounter between two of Kenya's universities, Egerton University and Africa Nazareen University (ANU), leaving the former with the bragging right over the prestigious Zain scholars' trophy until the next season.

The all-male team from Egerton took a giant lead from the start with a 50-190 point margin in their favour and managed to sustain the tempo throughout the contest, netting a total of 740 as against the 510 points of the female-dominated team from ANU.

Founded in 1939, Egerton University is on record as the highest winners in the history of the ZAC, having won the maiden edition in 2005, the subsequent year and lately, season four which ended over the weekend.

Apart from taking home the enviable trophy, the team also walked away with a whopping US$ 50,000 institutional and US$ 5,000 individual grants. ANU however made their debut appearance this season but succeeded in putting up a remarkable and impressive performance, rising steadily to emerge the first runners up. For their effort, they also received US$ 35,000 as institutional grant for the University and US$3,500 for each of the four contestants, coach and liaison.

Last season, Nigeria's University of Ibadan emerged the winners and came back this season poised to repeat history. However they met stiff competition from one of Ghana's team from the University for Development Studies and were subsequently edged out at the preliminary stage, denying them the opportunity to cling onto the trophy.

Corporate Communications & External Affairs Manager of Zain Ghana, Carmen Bruce-Anna said “We are proud of the impact we are making in the lives of these young ones through this battle of brains competition. We are investing heavily in education because we believe that we are directly shaping the future of generations and giving Africa the platform to compete favourably with it counterparts across the continent in every facet of life, hence our commitment of over 1 million dollars into the programme.”

“ZAC is one of the intellectual programmes that have proven that learning could be more fun, exciting and rewarding and we will continue to provide the needed support and opportunities in our quest to project the youth of Ghana and their capabilities to the whole world.” she added.

Instituted in 2005, Zain Africa Challenge, the first ever televised Pan African intellectual quiz features 32 universities from the English-speaking Zain-operated countries including Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Zambia.

During the 15-week period, viewers of the show were also rewarded with airtime and 3.5G phones through their participation in the Zain Home Viewers Game.