The flag is an adaptation of the winning entry from Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi in a competition held in 1959. Akinkunmi was a 23-year-old student at the time he designed the flag. He was studying at Norwood Technical College in London, England, when he saw an advertisement in a newspaper that submissions were being accepted for the design of a new national flag of Nigeria. The original submission had a red radiating sun badge in the central white vertical band with a green vertical band on each side. After the badge was removed by the judges, the flag has remained unchanged. It was first officially used on 1 October 1960, the day Nigeria was granted independence from the United Kingdom.