Kaduna State Governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero said his administration has earmarked N1 billion in the 2014 budget to train indigenous students overseas to study science based courses.

The governor disclosed this yesterday on the occasion of scholarship award to some students from the Northern states by a USA based association Zumunta Association USA incorporated under its National Scholarship (ZNS) Programme.

Yero who was represented by his Commissioner for education, Mallam Ibrahim Ali added that the State Government would also partner with the association to make education more accessible for indigent students in the State.

The governor also disclosed that over N89 million was expended in 2013 as cost of NECO fees paid for the candidates for the examination in the State.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the National Scholarship Program of the association, Prof. Martins Shinkut, a lecturer of Computer Science at the Lincoln University, Missiouri, said the association had been engaged in various scholarship schemes in the northern region since 1995.

He said the reasons for the scholarship award was because, “college costs a lot more that it used to be, the economy is spiraling, and parents have hard times supporting their children through higher education”.

Professor Shinkut said over several students since inception in 1995 have benefitted annually from the scholarship of N50,000 each, adding that efforts were in place to extend the gesture to other parts of the country and to subsequently review the scholarship upward.

One of the beneficiaries Miss Josphine Abarshi a student of Mass Communication from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria expressed appreciation for the rare priviledge to be part of the beneficiaries, she said she will judiciously utilize the money to justify the purpose for which it is given.

source: http://leadership.ng/news/624/2014-budget-kaduna-earmarks-n1bn-for-training-students-oversees