Kaduna votes N800m for 42 students’ foreign scholarships

The Kaduna State Government says it has so far disbursed N800m to 42 students from the state studying abroad in the year 2020.

The amount, it said, covered tuition fees, upkeep, transportation and accommodation.

The Executive Secretary of Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board, Malam Hassan Rilwan, stated this on Thursday while announcing that the state had granted international scholarships to another batch of 34 students. The students were those that would proceed for postgraduate studies in September 2021.

He said, “The state is already spending N800m on 42 students granted merit-based international scholarships in the September 2020 cycle.”

The beneficiaries, he said, had since resumed their studies in universities in the United Kingdom, United States, Hungary and Malaysia.

Rilwan said the 34 successful applicants comprised 22 First Class degree holders, six Second Class (Upper Division) degree holders with CGPA of 4.0 and above going for Masters.

According to him, three Master’s degree holders, who bagged a distinction and three others, who have merit, will be sponsored for doctorate degrees on foreign scholarship.

The executive secretary disclosed that out of the total 265 students that had applied, 153 applicants passed the use of English and plagiarism cut-off mark of 60 and less than 25, respectively.

He added that each of the 153 applicants was officially contacted and requested to upload a personal statement and three minutes video, saying that 79 of them passed the document evaluation afterwards.

“Kaduna State is investing over N800m, covering tuition fees, upkeep, transportation and accommodation on the 42 students, who succeeded in the September 2020 cycle and they have since resumed their studies in the United Kingdom, the United States, Hungary and Malaysia,” Rilwan said in a statement.