Ebonyi Govt to spend N3billion on 263 foreign scholarship students

The Chairman of the Ebonyi State Scholarship Board, Chaka Nweze, has said that the state government will spend 3 billion naira for the 263 foreign students.

Nweze disclosed this to newsmen shortly after briefing beneficiaries of the foreign scholarship at the Exco Chamber, Old Government House in Abakaliki.

The board chairman explained that Governor Francis Nwifuru has released 3 billion naira for the Masters and doctorate degrees for the students.

He, however, commended the state governor for providing all necessary support to the beneficiaries of the foreign scholarship, adding that the scholarship board does not have any challenges during the exercise due to the fact that Governor Nwifuru had earlier funded the ministry for the betterment of the candidates.

“We don’t have any challenges regarding the foreign scholarship because the board has already been funded by the state governor, and even when we are doing national scholarship, the board was equally funded.

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“The beneficiaries of the foreign scholarship have been profiled, and we have equally paid their tuition fees. Any moment from now, their living expenses will be given to them.

“From master’s degree to doctorate degree, at the end of the day, the state government will spend close to 3 billion naira.

“For the national scholarship for this year alone, the government will spend 15 billion naira. Meanwhile, the governor has released 10 billion naira for the foreign scholarship, and it may need to release another 500 million naira for their logistics because we need to provide them with flight tickets and visas. Each visa for the students is approximately 490 pounds, and some of them who don’t have passports will need to get them.

“Ebonyi State government has started engaging foreign universities. Even before now, I have traveled to the United Kingdom alongside the Commissioner for Tertiary Institutions to engage with the university we are using for now, and we are in touch with them. They have given us modalities to follow.

“We have a total of 263 foreign scholarship candidates to depart for the United Kingdom by the end of this month, and the first batch is 212 candidates,” he explained.