Borno Expends Over N1 Billion On Scholarships Of 373 Students
The Commissioner of Higher Education in Borno State, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Jaha has said that government has not lost sight of “human and manpower development,” despite security challenges it had to contend and grapple with simultaneously in the last four years of Governor Shettima’s administration.
Addressing the press in Maiduguri he said, the manpower development cuts across various disciplines and professions, including the health and agricultural sectors that could raise the living standards of people living in rural and urban cetres of the state.
He said that the Borno state government was conscious of the fact that development encompasses “interdependent components and variables of tangible and non-tangible requirements” by awarding scholarships across all facets of resource and manpower developments.
His words: “Bearing in mind of the indispensability of manpower and human capacity building to sustainable development, Borno state took bold steps to raise both the standard and quality of its citizens through the award of scholarships for both local and overseas training for all deserving graduates and undergraduates in this state.
He said a total of 373 students were awarded
scholarships at the cost of more than N1 billion from the year 2010 to 2014.Such scholarships, according to the commissioner, cut across various disciplines and professions, including the health, agricultural,electricity, law and Marine Engineering and Nautical Science sectors of the economy.
He said: “The state government sponsored 20 students to the United Kingdom (U.K) to read Msc Degrees in Petrochemical Engineering in 2013 and the sum of N142.3 million was expended on their scholarship and other
training requirements.
“The manpower development efforts of Government did not stop at the award of scholarships to deserving students for overseas training alone. In 2011, government spent the sum of N22.85 million on scholarships for 52 students at the Nigerian Law School. In 2012 the sum of N24 million was also expended on 59 students for the same programme.
In the subsequent year of 2013, the Shettima administration spent over N24 million for 52 students in the institution the following year of 2014. The scholarships expenditures for 85 students at the Nigeria Law School also gulped N59.45 million.”
Jaha also added: “To boost the quality of training in the Agricultural Sciences, the state government through the State Ministry of Agriculture sponsored 50 graduates to Thailand for agricultural training and another 50 set of graduates were sent to India for similar training in harnessing Borno’s rich agricultural and mineral resources.
“Recently, with the gracious assistance of UNICEF, that indicated its readiness to sponsor 47 orphans to Madona University, Port Harcourt, the state government guaranteed to provide logistics, including transportation and other essential needs of the students to the sum of N11 million.
“At this rate of seriousness on the part of the government and with the cooperation of the good people of Borno state, and God’s willing with the growing hope for peace restoration in the state, this administration is more than ever before determined to take education and human capacity building to higher levels,""he said.