Victor Efeizomor
7 November 2009
Asaba — Eight hundred and sixty students, 451 of whom are of Delta State origin in tertiary institutions, have been awarded scholarships in fields of medicine and engineering.
Agbami Medical and Engineering Professionals Scholarship Programme, sponsors of the award, presented to the students, who are from Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Lagos and Ondo, the scholarship award. The award, the sponsors said, was aimed at improving the quality of education in Nigeria.
The benefiting students were picked after they met the minimum requirement in a competitive examination.
Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, while speaking at the occasion, said the initiative came at a time government was dealing with the issue of youth and the post amnesty in the Niger Delta.
The governor, however, appealed to the sponsors of the scheme to expand its scope by including students studying environment studies and agriculture.
He said while the inclusion of environmental studies readily draws attention to the pollution of the environment by oil companies, that of agriculture underscores the importance the state government has attached to that sector in its bid to diversify the economy.
Uduaghan further said that the inclusion of the two disciplines would help the state utilize the 1,000 slots allocated to it in the scholarship scheme.
He enjoined the awardees to take their studies serious so that they can continue to meet the minimum requirements required of them.
Commissioner for Higher Education, Dr. Hope Eghagha, in his speech commended the effort of the sponsors as well as Chevron for investing so much in the human capital development in the state. He also called for the expansion of the programme to cover other disciplines such as computer technology, information and other technical vocations.
The chairman and managing director of Star Deepwater Petroleum limited , Mr. Andrew Fawthrop, said " one of the projects in the educational sector was the Agbami Medical and Engineering Professional Scholarship" , adding that " N118.2m has been earmarked for the 860 beneficiaries during this first session, saying that "the figure would increase significantly from next year as awareness of and participation by students in the programme increase" .
Group General Manager, NAPIMS, Dr. Ayo Balogun, said "the award of scholarship to the students was another initiative that demonstrate the partners' passion to improve the quality of education in Nigeria.
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Its nice to hear this kind of spirit-boosting news. I mean, its a welcome development but how excited would I be if myself or any of my family members is not a beneficiary. In my present university I'm doing bellow expectation. So I actually need an aid like a scholarship to rededicate myself in my academics. It has been my dream to study abroad but that would be real hard for my parent who is struggling to pay my current fee at the discomfort of life. SO, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW I CAN GET DETAILS ABOUT AGBAMI SCHOLARSHIP OR ANY OTHER?