Enugu Govt secures foreign mentorship programme for 28 students
The Enugu State Government has secured fully-funded scholarships for another batch of 28 post graduate students, who are indigenes of the state, to study in Europe and America.
The Executive Secretary of the Enugu State Scholarship Board, Mr Levi Abonyi, announced this while addressing newsmen in Enugu.
Abonyi had led some of the beneficiaries to the Government House on Friday, to express gratitude to Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for the opportunity given to them.
He disclosed that the scholarship mentorship programme was designed and developed by the Board to expose Enugu students to available funding opportunities around the world, in line with the administration’s youth empowerment scheme.
Abonyi revealed that the programme was approved by the State Executive Council (EXCO), adding that it had produced 46 fully-funded Masters and PhD students from the state.
The first batch of the programme, launched in October 2020, had 18 Enugu State indigenes as beneficiaries.
The Executive Secretary explained that the scheme prepared fresh graduates to enroll directly into PhD programmes without first obtaining a Masters Degree.
He added that the “goal is to produce a generation of intellectuals who will be better equipped to turn the state around economically and who will be better disposed to compete favourably globally”.
Abonyi said government “pays the scholarship mentors monthly allowances as honorarium for their services, takes care of the cost of Visa, flight tickets, initial living expenses and other logistics of all successful students at the cost of one million naira”.
This, he said, comes in as a guarantor for the issuance of Visas to the benefiting students.
Expressing gratitude to Gov. Ugwuanyi on behalf of the beneficiaries, Lilian Ekowo, who will travel to the University of Notre Dem, United States of America, thanked the governor for availing them the opportunity to benefit from the scholarship.“
“Today, each one of us was awarded the scholarship of One million naira travelling expenses.”
Another beneficiary, Mathias Isiani, appreciated Gov. Ugwuanyi for his benevolence and commitment to youth empowerment and education.
He advised other young people to develop interest in the programme, to improve on their academic careers.
On his part, one of the 18 beneficiaries of the first batch of the programme in 2020, Odinaka Eze, who graduated from University of Mississippi, USA, expressed delight that “this mentorship programme has up to 46 ambassadors”.
He stressed that the experience was quite revealing and enriching in terms of academics and research.
Speaking on behalf of the mentors, the Coordinator, Enugu State Mentorship Programme, Dr. Kelechi Ugwuanyi, said more Enugu indigenes would benefit from the programme in no distant time.
” This mentorship programme under Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration is focused on raising the next leaders of this state.”
According to him, the target is that before Ugwuanyi finishes his tenure, they will have close to fifty or 100 beneficiaries across the world.
“I am happy to say that today we have a spread of ambassadors in USA, Canada, Japan, Netherland, Egypt, China and Czech Republic.
“The governor made it possible and I am happy to say that they are all holding their cheques and some of them will be leaving this weekend and next week.
“We thank Gov. Ugwuanyi for giving us this opportunity to work for the state and encourage the young ones to be able to go to different countries of the world to study.
“We hope that they will come back to put in their best in the economy and development of the state,” he said. (NAN)
