United Nigeria Airlines has committed N20 million over 10 years to the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction, giving the annual literary award a long-term private-sector sponsor and extending the airline’s involvement in initiatives linked to Nigerian culture and heritage.
Under the commitment, the airline will provide N2 million annually to the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), bringing the total value of the sponsorship to N20 million over the 10-year period. The commitment was disclosed by Obiora Okonkwo the airline’s executive chairman following discussions with Usman Akanbi, ANA president,.Â
Okonkwo said the decision was driven by Achebe’s contribution to Nigerian and African literature and his wider influence on public discourse. He described Achebe as a major figure whose writings, lectures, speeches and public interventions brought international attention to Africa and contributed to Nigeria’s cultural identity.
Akanbi welcomed the sponsorship, describing it as a significant intervention in support of Nigerian literature. He also recalled Achebe’s role in the establishment of the Association of Nigerian Authors in 1981 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he became the association’s pioneer president.
The sponsorship adds to a series of initiatives by Okonkwo and United Nigeria Airlines in honour of the late author. In July, a statue of Achebe financed by Okonkwo was unveiled at the Ugwunwasike Roundabout in Ogidi, his hometown in Anambra State, by Governor Chukwuma Soludo.
The airline had also named one of two newly acquired Boeing 737-800NG aircraft after Achebe in June, while the second aircraft was named after Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha.
The 10-year sponsorship agreement between the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and United Nigeria Airlines establishes a long-term private-sector funding framework for the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction.
The partnership also marks the entry of a corporate organisation outside the publishing and literary sectors into the financing of one of Nigeria’s prominent literary awards.
