70 students left the country yesterday on scholarship to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in China and Russia under bilateral education agreement with Nigeria.
Four other students have since gone to Cuba, Education Minister Ruqayyat Rufa’i confirmed last night, out of a total 210 scholarship positions offered by partner countries this year.
Addressing the departing students at an orientation ceremony in Abuja last night, Rufa’i said the number of countries offering scholarship positions for Nigerian students has “increased significantly…despite the global economic downturn.”
She added that Nigeria remained open to accept more offers from developing partners.
The minister also warned the students that there would be “no room for repetition and extension of scholarship awards as a result of academic incompetence or change of course.”
She stressed the BEA programme strictly targeted “brilliant and indigent students whose parents cannot afford the fees of studying abroad.”
Oyo state-born Ajao Adeyemi, a 100-level physiology student now taking up oil and gas engineering in Russia, told Daily Trust that applying for the scholarship was “a bit difficult” but he expected to overcome even more challenges in Russia.
Nigeria currently has 21 BEA partners. But the most active partnerships are with Russia, Cuba, China, Japan, Morocco, Turkey, Ukraine, Serbia, Romania and Algeria which offered a total 153 scholarships combined in the present academic session.
Nearly lost
Those 153 positions were nearly lost to rival nations, says the Federal Scholarship Board, citing funding shortages and eventual rescue by the Presidency.
Director of the board, Hindatu Abdullahi, said without the Presidency’s timely intervention, the country “would have lost 153 opportunities to other competing countries in essential fields required for the Transformation Agenda.”
She also lamented that the board’s budget for 2012 was no “different from last year’s low budget.”
In 2011, the Federal Scholarships Board got a total N968,146,476, mostly spent in servicing domestic and international scholarships.
Some N63 million was spent on fresh scholarship awards for 73 students from three countries. Another 141 students from eight other countries are left out.
Under the agreement, BEA partners will cover tuition, accommodation and stipends, but the students get more than $6,400 in allowances from Nigerian government.
A breakdown from the education ministry indicates yearly allowances Nigeria will pay its students:
· $6,000 to augment feeding, local transport, maintenance, equipment and books
· $250 for warm clothing
· $200 for health insurance
· A grant of N60,000 to undergraduate—and N100,000 for postgraduate students—in single payment before departure
· One-way ticket to the receiving country and a return ticket at the end of the course, paid through the Nigerian mission
· Students of medicine get $500 in allowances after one year studying the recipient country’s language.
This is really encouragin. If Nigeria continue like dis even d less privileged but intelligent citizens wil also be given opportuinity 2 accomplish dia dreams and make d world and nation d best place 2 dwell and live in Unity. Dis wil also reduce and increase d level and standard of illiteracy & literacy in our country. Most student due 2 unemployment submit demselves in2 some nasty business kinds like armed robbery,cultism and so on, i belive dis scholarships wil help our young students who merit and deserve dis 2 bring about development so as 2 make his or her country a breadwinning country,no dependin on other countries 4 good produced goods as imports and decrease d rate of POVERTY in our country.