Maryam Abeeb, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Eduation has disclosed that Russia, China, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Mexico and Hungary have offered 313 scholarship slots to Nigerian pupils under the Bilateral Educational Agreement so far in the 2019/2020 academic session.
According to the breakdown, Morocco leads with 100 scholarship slots, Russia had 86 and Hungary, 47 slots.
Meanwhile, China offered 34 slots, Algeria 33, Egypt 12 and Mexico offered one.
The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, stated this at a three-day workshop on federal scholarship process and implementation in Abuja on Tuesday, saying 94 scholars were already about to leave for Russia, while 21 were headed for Algeria.
The minister noted that the donor countries had the responsibilities of providing accommodation, paying the tuition fees as well as some pocket allowance for the scholars.
He added that the Federal Government would provide a supplementary allowance of $6,000 yearly to support the feeding, local transportation, maintenance and equipment to them, while also putting in place a health insurance of $200 annually to the scholars.
“In spite of the global economic meltdown, the number of our development partners has increased and many of them now offer scholarship to Nigerians. To be eligible for this award, the candidate must have obtained distinctions, that is A and B in five subjects including English Language and Mathematics at one sitting, not older than two years,” the minister added.
The Director, Federal Scholarship Board, Mrs. Asta Ndajiwo, noted that the Federal Government had so far in 2019 offered about 1000 scholarships to Nigerians in public tertiary institutions under the Bilateral Educational Agreement and local scholarships to pursue their education.
Ndajiwo added that the government had cleared the allowances of foreign scholars studying in BEA countries up to December 2019.
She said, “We have issued more than 1000 scholarships to Nigerians in public tertiary institutions, about 200 for the Bilateral Educational Agreement to Nigerians that applied to go to countries we
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