By Rebecca Ejifoma
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the World Bank Nigeria are not going to give scholarships to indigent or any other category of students.
The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, said this clarification became necessary in view of the understanding in some quarters that the Bank was going to be awarding scholarships directly to people who wish to obtain tertiary education through the university.
Adamu explained that if NOUN is seeking sponsorship for the less privileged students, such as internally displaced persons, women and indigent youth, it would first and foremost sell the idea to the individual states.
“If a state government buys into the concept, it will then approach the World Bank indicating its interest. The Bank will evaluate the request and then, if it is satisfied, provide funds to NOUN for the sponsorship of students from the state, and only if the World Bank is satisfied that there will be equity and transparency in the selection process,” he said.
“World Bank and NOUN are therefore not going to give scholarship to anybody. Neither will the Bank provide any money to the individual states directly for this purpose. The Bank is only a facilitator,” he added.
The Vice-Chancellor pointed out that what makes this possible is the World Bank’s intervention programme, the Education for All component of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which NOUN has since keyed into.
He said the university would soon embark on sensitisation visits to states across the country to sell the idea to them because the provision of education to all segments of the Nigerian society was the core function of NOUN’s mandate.
