Funding Opportunities at Enugu State Scholarship Board

Enugu State Scholarship board was established in 2009 under the Sullivan administration with the objective, inter alia, of ensuring that many indigent but exceptionally brilliant students are given the opportunity to go to school.

Since the establishment of the board, not so many people knew about its existence until the administration of His Excellency, Rt. Honourable Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi wherein the board became a household name through the award of various degrees of scholarships to Enugu indigenes to study both within and outside the country.

Under the administration of His Excellency, Rt. Honourable Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi, the following scholarships have been awarded:

• 300 Enugu students from various tertiary institutions receive #100, 000 (one hundred thousand naira) per annum to fund their tuition. We have funded this scholarship to the point that the only remaining batches are those that would collect their 2021 funds.
• 340 indigent Enugu students of Iwollo Polytechnic drawn from the 17 LGAs were offered scholarships at the cost of #41.6 million, covering their tuition for four years.
• 340 indigent Enugu students of Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu drawn from the 17 LGAs of the state were granted scholarships at the cost of #54.4 million, covering their tuition for four years of academic studies in all engineering programmes of the institution.
• 22 post-secondary school students of Enugu state were offered scholarships to study in Mewar University, India.
• 38 Pupils of Inland Primary School, Imilike Enu were awarded scholarships up to secondary school level.
• 2 exceptionally brilliant students, one of whom is ALI CYNTHIA CHINEMEREM that came first in the 2017 WAEC, were awarded scholarships to university level.

The State Scholarship board has equally been repositioned as a one stop shop for Enugu students on both local and international scholarships and has become a channel through which Enugu indigenes can access fully- funded scholarship schemes available for developing countries. As we speak, Enugu State Scholarship board has processed and sent applications for over 300 Enugu students to study in New Zealand under the fully -funded New Zealand Development Scholarship programme.

The Scholarship board has automated the system of application of scholarships through its portal that enables all Enugu applicants create an account through which all their applications are made and processed. This portal is designed in such a way that enables the applicants track the status update of their applications online without any human interference. The portal offers CBT solutions that make the conduct of aptitude tests and exams seamless. It equally contains an internal control mechanism to ensure that non Enugu indigenes do not usurp the opportunities meant for ‘ndi’ Enugu.

The Scholarship board has, through the efforts of this administration, concluded a number of bi-lateral educational agreements with various schools in Europe and America with a view to ensuring massive development of the state through technical education, vocational and skill development. Most of our students on foreign scholarships are on bond to work for at least 2 years for the state upon their return and this has a multiplier effects on the economic development of the state.

The scholarship board has also engaged the services of a world-class consultant who aides in the processing and securing of scholarships for Enugu indigenes using its relationships with development partners, embassies and high commissions.

The board is poised to do much more given the massive support it is getting from the current administration, especially with the initiative of the government to ensure that scholarships are awarded only to deserving indigent but exceptionally intelligent students and some physically challenged people. With this support, the board has opened its offices in all the 17 LGAs to ensure that the message reaches every rural community.

The idea behind the establishment of the office of the board in the LGAs is in line with His Excellency’s drive to ensure that brilliant children are not denied opportunities to realise their dreams due to lack of funding and to ensure that creative young children in the rural communities are identified for training in different vocational skills as drivers of the technological growth of the state in the fourth industrial revolution.

Pursuant to the support by this administration, the board has perfected plans to launch its strategic plan for the year 2020 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja under the chairmanship of His Excellency, Rt. Honourable Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi. This launch will have in attendance our development partners, Ambassadors, Representatives of High Commission and other multi-national corporations with special funds for education and research development. The expected outcome of this launch is to place Enugu State in the world map as a leading educationally developed state in Nigeria before the end of this administration through the funding and technical supports that will flow from the partnerships that this meeting/launch will create.