It is increased hope for the prospective winners of the 2025 Fola Ojutalayo’s Annual Maritime Speech-Making Competition (FOAMSC) as the lucky winner and the runners up will now win an amount higher the what was originally advertised.
This is because the 2017 SUG President of the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology (FCFMT) and 2019 Beneficiary of the AMSAY Conference, Adesakin Adekola, whose testimonial was recently shared in the social media by the event organisers has chosen to give back to the brand that changed his life six years ago.
This is even as Aremu Temiloluwa Samuel, another mentee of Capt. Dr. Fola Ojutalayo has also donated the sum of one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) to increase the overall cash price of the winner and the runners up in the competition.
Adekola, a former cadet now working onboard a vessel with a multinational shipping company as a Second Officer/Marine Advisor has offered to add extra N50,000 to the N100,000 cash prize already earmarked for the prospective winner by the sponsor, making a total of N150,000.
In his message to Platform Reporters, promoters of the initiative, Adekola described the benefactor of the competition, Ojutalayo as a true icon who has immensely imparted many cadets and young seafarers positively in Nigeria.
“Captain Fola is the main reason for my additional donation and because of his immense contributions in many lives in Nigerian maritime industry.
“I must admit that the man is truly an icon. If I had known before now that he champions things like this speech competition, I would have donated even more. But next year own will be massive than this”, he promised.
Also in his own, Samuel, a Chief Officer in one of the vessels that Fola is the Master said the renowned navigator is his mentor. He disclosed that he is supporting the initiative as a good avenue to give back to the Nigerian maritime family.
Reacting to the development, the Publisher of Platform Reporters and Convener of the AMSAY Conference, Mr Sylvanus Obasi, lauded Adekola and Aremu for their kind gesture, saying that they have demonstrated a true act of giving back which the AMSAY Conference epitomises.
He further revealed that whoever emerges winner of the 2025 FOAMSC is likely going to win an amount up to or more than N200,000 as he hopes thaty more people of like minds are likely to donate more cash gifts to the winners at the conference as which was always the case in the previous editions of the competition.
Obasi also hinted on the next stage of the competition, saying, “as submission of written speech entries on the 2025 selected topic ended May 16, successful candidates in this writing stage will now move to the next stage which is the virtual presentation of the written speech to a panel of judges before the best three candidates will be shortlisted to sweat it out in the actual presentation competition live at the 2025 AMSAY Conference slated for May 27 in Lagos”.
Recall that the Fola jOjutalayo’s Annual Speech-Making Competition was conceived and integrated into the Annual Maritime Students and Youth (AMSAY) Conference since 2022 with the sole aim of scouting and grooming young eloquent speakers on maritime topics.
The initiative is inspired by Ojutalayo, a successful navigator, marine consultant and eloquent speaker. The topic for the 2025 FOAMSC is titled: “The Benefits of Changing Nigerian INCOTERMS from Free On Board (F.O.B) to Cost, Insurance and Freight (C.I.F)”.
With the added donations to the original cash price, the Winner of the competition as at the time of going to press will now get the sum of #190,000; whereas the First and Second Runners Up will get #80,000 and #55,000 respectively.