Nine-year-old Enwere-Kingsley Ikenna of Cuddy Kids School, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos emerged the overall winner of the 16th Annual National Mathematics Competition on Thursday. 

The competition, organised by National Mathematical Centre and Nigeria Tulip International Colleges Abuja, was to reward the hardwork of pupils, who surmounted the phobia associated with mathematics.

Ikenna scored an amazing 98.85 per cent, which secured him the gold medal. He defeated 39,518 candidates who participated in the competition in the 36 states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory.

Mr Ercan Yilmaz, Principal of the Ogun State Chpater of NTIC said Ikenna would get a full scholarship with a cash prize of N300,000 while his teacher would get N200,000 and his school would get a digital printer and desktop computer.

Yilmaz said pupils who emerged winners from second to the seventh position would also get scholarships from the college while winners from eighth to the twelfth position would also get scholarship among other prizes.

“This is certainly a display of academic commitment par excellence which NTIC as a school that rewards hard work would not be tired of doing.

“We believe that pupils who could devote much of their time to the mastery of mathematics, that others in their ignorance, consider a big devil should be more than amply rewarded,” he said.