15 years after, Cowbell maths competition goes on television

FIFTEEN years after Promasidor introduced Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC) in Nigeria, it has stepped its up game by having the competition televised. So unlike in the past, the second stage of the competition will be on television for 13 weeks. And a total of 108 junior and senior secondary school students in Nigeria out of about 34,000 that sat for this year’s edition of the mathematics competition across the country have been shortlisted for the second stage.
 
Head of Marketing, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, makers of Cowbell Milk and promoter of the competition, Mr. Festus Tettey, disclosed last week. He explained that 54 of the students qualified from the JSS3 students that participated in the first stage examination held earlier in the year. Also, 54 students qualified from the senior category.

On the modality used before arriving at 54 successful students for each category, Tettey said the top 20 students from around the country were picked while the balance 34 were representatives from the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Unlike before, Tettey said there was improvement in the second stage of the competition this year, as the 2015 edition marked the 15th year sponsorship of NASSMAC by Cowbell. To commemorate this feat, he stated, the Second Stage has been changed to an interactive Quiz Competition known as Cowbellpedia, which is endorsed by National Examinations Council (NECO).

He disclosed that the quiz competition, which will be aired on 13 television stations across the country, would be on the topics Number and Numeration, Algebra, Geometry and Measuration, Statistics and Probability, Trigonometry as well as Introduction to Calculus.
 
He disclosed the television stations to air Cowbellpedia to include AIT Network, TVC Lagos, NTA Channel 10 Lagos, MITV, Ondo Television, NTA Ibadan, NTA Port Harcourt, ABS Onitsha, NTA Enugu, ITV Benin, NTA Kaduna, STB Jos and Niger TV Minna.
 
Also, Tettey said that there was significant increase in the prize money for winners this year, as the best students in both categories will receive N750,000 each while the first and second runners–up will smile home with N500,000 and N250,000 in that order.

While speaking earlier, Managing Director of Promasidor Mr. Olivier Thiry said, “Innovation is at the core of what we do in Promasidor. Innovation drives the way we think, act and interact with our consumers and customers.”
 
In view of this, he said for over 15 years now, Promasidor has been committed to the development and nurturing of mathematics in Nigeria through the platform of NASSMAC, adding that it was time to give it a new creative twist.

According to him, “Today, this new and value-adding direction takes our initiative to another height in our pursuit to nurture great innovators – engineers and scientists for tomorrow. Mathematics is particularly unique as it is the bedrock upon which science and technology is built”.