Ganduje offsets N18b scholarship debt for overseas students

• Published date: 24 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has paid N18 billion scholarship debt which he inherited from the Rabi'u Kwankwaso administration, Commissioner for Information Malam Muhammad Garba said yesterday.

The N18 billion scholarship debt was for a number of Kano students studying abroad. Most of the affected students were based in France, Cyprus and Egypt, it was learnt.

Garba said the foreign scholarship programme was initiated by Kwankwaso who left office in 2015.

'When we came into power in 2015, we met huge unpaid foreign and domestic scholarships left behind by the government of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and this gave us a lot of problems. But we have settled about N18 billion so far,' Garba said.

According to him, it was meaningless that the previous government sent students abroad to study courses that are available and cheaper in Nigerian universities.

He noted that the Ganduje administration has no quarrel with students on specialised courses that are not available here in Nigeria, adding that it is however out of place to sponsor a set of students to read History abroad.

'From whatever prism...