The Quarter Finals of the GTBank/Lagos State Principals Cup – Season 6 “Smash all Barriers”, kicks off on Monday, February 23 at the Agege Stadium, Lagos with 16 Lagos state secondary schools competing for the cup in both the male and female categories.
The prestigious secondary school football tournament, currently in its 6th season, is an annual football competition geared towards the development of grassroots football, the discovery of young football talents and fostering camaraderie amongst secondary school students. It also provides a platform for identifying, nurturing, grooming young and talented players as well as helping students actualize their dream of becoming professional footballers.
This stage of the competition promises to be very exciting as schools that made it to the semi-final stage of the competition in the last year’s edition are still in contention and intend to slug it out to retain their title whilst the other schools will be gunning for glory. The schools contesting at the quarter final stage include: Ikorodu Senior Grammar School, Ikorodu, Iju Senior Grammar School, Iju, Dr. Lucas Memorial College, Kirikiri, Keke High School, Ijaye, Isolo Senior High School, Isolo, Birrel Avenue Senior High School, Sabo, Ifako Compehensive Senior Secondary School, Ifako and Dairy Farm Senior Secondary School, Agege for the male category. The quarter finalist in the female Category are; CMS Girls Senior Secondary School, Bariga, Girls Senior High School, Agege, Alakoto Senior High School, Ajegunle, Ikotun Senior High School, Ikotun, Government. Senior College, Agege, Ilado Community High School, Ikoyi,
Queen’s College, Yaba and Oriwu Senior Model College, Ikorodu.
The star prize of N1,000,000 will be won by the winning male and female teams while the 1st, 2nd, 3rd runners up will receive N750,000, N500,000 and N250,000 respectively. GTBank will also upgrade the existing sports infrastructure in all participating schools as well football sporting equipment’s such as football goal posts nets, balls and corner flags for schools throughout the duration of the competition.
Commenting on the tournament, Segun Agbaje, Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank plc, stated that “over the years this tournament has helped participating students work towards actualizing their dream of becoming professional footballers and some of them are already making a career out of football. It has also helped them grow in personal confidence and become better team players”. “GTBank will continue to invest massively in youth development through education and sports”, he added.
The Bank compliments the Principals Cup tournament with an annual residential coaching programme known as “Camp GTBank”. Camp GTBank is a football developmental programme designed to discover, sharpen and cultivate the skills of outstanding talents of the GTBank Lagos State Principals Cup and Master’s Cup, drawing on the experience of top coaches from European clubs.
Guaranty Trust Bank plc is one of the few Nigerian financial institutions that have maintained a defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy since its inception in 1990. The Bank actively supports in-classroom and out-of-classroom educational programmes, infrastructure development, scholarship and teachers training across Africa.
