NEDC Unveils Scholarship Portal, Targets 5,000 Northeast Indigenes 

By Abdulkareem Haruna

The Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) has recently, in Gombe state, launched at Education Endowment Fund online portal that provides scholarship opportunities for at least 5,100 persons from the six states of the subregion.

The NEDC had earlier announced its plans to launch the scheme with the aim of     re-invigorating    the    quality of    the    education sub-sector    in the    North-East which like the psycho-social    and    economic    strata of    the    Region    has    suffered    serious    setback    as    a    result    of    over    ten    years    of    Boko    Haram    insurgency.   

It is on record that due to the over a decade of war, many    schools within the North-East have    indeed been destroyed, with     a huge number of teachers killed and    thousands    of youths of school-going aged displaced and forced to remain out of school.

“It    is    in    the    light    of    the    foregoing    that    the    Management    and    Board    of    the Commission Development    Commission considered    it necessary  to put    in    place    a special    purpose   
vehicle    to    address    the    educational    needs    of    the    6    states    of    the    North-East,” Asmau    Mohammed, the acting 
Board of Trustees for,     Chairperson    NEDC-EEF, said while giving an overview of the scholarship scheme. 

Ms Mohammed, who is a Board    Member of NEDC from  North-West Nigeria said the board approved the scholarship scheme with a view      to charting “a    rob
support    trajectory    for    the    recovery    of    our    decaying    education    infrastructure    and    human resources”. 

Apart from several capacity-building training that was carried out recently to address the manpower deficit across all fields of human endeavours, the NEDC said it has also selected 115 schools of which contracts have been awarded for the construction   
of    one    block    of    3    classrooms    each,    with    the    supply    of    school    desks    and learning materials

“Today    we    are    here    in    our    strides    to officially    launch    the    Education    Endowment    Fund’s    Scholarship    in    which    4,953    undergraduates,    102    postgraduates    and    42    PhD    potential   
students    have    a    chance of    obtaining    full    scholarship    awards,” Ms Mohammed said.   

She added that ”the    Scholarship awards will    be to    deserving    science and    arts    students to be    selected equitably from    the six states of the North-East.”

Managing Director of NEDC, Mohammed Goni-Alkali has earlier in an opening speech nformed that “apart from launching the Education Endowment Fund and Scholarship Portal, the commission was to also present starter packs to 198 Graduates of the ICT Training Programme funded by the NEDC. 

The Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Faruq, who was represented at the event said NEDC’s investment in education “is aimed at changing the wrong ideologies of insurgents, and reversing the level of illiteracy and unemployment among others.”

Governor of Gombe state, Inuwa Yahaya, who was represented by his deputy, Daniel Jatau, acknowledged that since its establishment,  NEDC, “has pursued its mandate vigorously to ensure capacity building and human capital development, reduction of the high illiteracy rate, and extreme poverty of the region among others.”