Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has said that from 2024 it would reduce the number of beneficiaries of its foreign post graduate scholarship following the increasing foreign exchange rate. The commission according to a statement in Port Harcourt by the Director, Corporate Affairs, Pius Ughakpoteni, said it would rather create a scholarship for undergraduates studying in the universities in country. This was as NDDC has commenced oral interviews for over 1,050 candidates for its Foreign Post-Graduate Scholarship Programme. The interview process, spanning over eleven days, is for the candidates that were successful during a Computer-Based Test written by 5,000 applicants earlier this month, in which 200 persons would be picked.
Speaking at the venue of the interview in Port Harcourt, the NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, who was accompanied by the Executive Director Finance and Administration, Alabo Boma Iyaye, the Executive Director Projects, Sir Victor Antai, and the Executive Director Corporate Services, Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde, complained that the dollar rate has affected the programme. Ogbuku, who was speaking on why the NDDC has not increased the number of scholarship beneficiaries explained that funding had been a challenge as exchange rate has increased. He said “We increased the allowance for the studies from thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000.00) to forty Thousand Dollars, ($40,000.00) and this affected our finances, making it necessary to create a balance.
“However, from next year we hope to reduce the number of foreign scholarships because of the high foreign exchange rate, but we will introduce scholarships for undergraduate students in Nigerian universities. This will enable us to accommodate more persons in the scholarship programme.” Ogbuku stated that the process of selecting the beneficiaries was based strictly on merit, adding that the best among the applicants would be picked. He said “everything is going to be done based on merit and that is what we want and the reason why we came to monitor the process is to show our support to what is going on and let people know that we did not set up a process without coming to check what was happening. We believe that the best will be selected amongst the successful candidates. We are sending the scholars out to represent our country. They are going to be our worthy ambassadors. The interview panel was randomly selected to ensure fairness because the 200 scholars to be selected will be our ambassadors.”
