AIG Announces Third Cohort of Scholarship Recipients

AIG Announces Third Cohort of Scholarship Recipients

The recipients of the third round of the African Initiative Governance Scholarships were announced Wednesday.

A statement from the company said that AIG has been awarding fully funded scholarships to young and outstanding West Africans from all backgrounds to pursue their Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford since 2017.

The scholars are expected to return to their home countries and apply their learning and experience as change agents in their various countries’ public sector.

The beneficiaries of the 2019/2020 AIG Scholarship are Babafemi Adebola (Nigeria); Onyekachukwu Erobu (Nigeria); Nasir Mohammed (Nigeria); Kwame Sarpong (Ghana) and Hakeem Onasanya (Nigeria).

Founder and Chairman of AIG, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said that he was impressed by the “I am very impressed with our third batch of the AIG scholars.

According to him: “All five of them represent West Africans of great potentials. Three qualities are common to all of them – strong intellectual ability, leadership and a passion for public service. It takes a strong value-system to want to serve the public good and these five individuals have demonstrated a compelling desire to do so.”

AIG signed a five-year partnership with the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, in June 2016. The partnership was based on a shared vision of improving the world through good governance and public leadership.

In each year of the partnership, AIG makes available five full scholarships for graduate study at the University of Oxford.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of AIG: “The AIG scholars are selected through a rigorous, transparent and merit-based process. Through this process, AIG seeks to encourage the same values in the next generation of public service leaders. With a third round of scholars, we are honoured to contribute to the development of talent critical to support Africa’s future.

A Mechanical Engineering Graduate of King’s College, London, Mr. Nasir Mohammed, who is also a beneficiary of the 2019 AIG Scholarships said: “I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and relief to have met the exceptionally high standards set by AIG for the prestigious Scholarship.

“Being selected as an AIG Scholar is a vote of confidence in my latent abilities, which I intend to nurture during my time at the Blavatnik School in preparation for my contribution to public service. I intend to use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop myself both personally and professionally.”

Another recipient, Sarpong, who holds a degree in Administrative Law said: “The AIG Scholarship is a stamp of recognition of my academic abilities and leadership potential, which not only humbles me, but also spurs me to do more for the benefit of humanity.

“The desire for public service has burned within me for as long as I can remember. It was against this backdrop that I decided to pursue Law because I considered it a powerful tool to effect widespread change. After the MPP, I aim to return to Ghana and apply my enhanced skillset to shape the implementation of trade policy.”

AIG also announced the application window dates for the 2020/2021 AIG Scholarships would run from Wednesday, July 31 to Monday, September 23, 2019.

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