The Niger Delta Development Commission,
NDDC, has given out award letters to 200
students for its 2016 Post-Graduate Foreign
Scholarship Programme.
The successful graduates from the 9 states in
the Niger Delta were, in addition to collecting
their letters, given pre-departure briefings and
put through formal orientation at a ceremony
held yesterday at the Hotel Presidential in
Port Harcourt.
Addressing the NDDC scholars, the Managing
Director of the commission, Mrs. Ibim
Semenitari, said that they represented what
could be achieved through hard work,
commitment and determination. “It is the
story of what success can be achieved when
men and women commit themselves to doing
what is right at the right time,” she said.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer said that the
narrative surrounding the NDDC Foreign Post-
Graduate Scholarship Programme was woven
into the very fabric of the Commission. She
said: “It was borne of the need to bridge the
huge manpower deficit in the Niger Delta
region, especially in Engineering, Science and
Technology, EST, the fields that drive the oil
industry. It was conceived to build a pool of
professionals whose intellectual mobility will
be in tandem with global trend and procure
proper and adequate space for the region as
the goose that lays the golden egg.
“This Scholarship Programme, which
commenced in 2010, is a good story to be
told. And that is why today, as the latest
beneficiaries prepare to embark on their
pursuit of the Golden Fleece overseas, the
NDDC is proud that the Niger Delta is sending
out the best and the brightest off a pool of
about 3,000 applicants.”
Mrs. Semenitari noted that the competition
was keen and intense and was a proof that
the narrative in the Niger Delta was not only
about the negatives that daily occupy greater
space in the news, but that youths in the
region were among the most brilliant and
positively mobile.
She further said that since the inception of the
scheme 6 years ago, the NDDC had trained a
total of 1, 2411 scholars in the PhD and MSc
levels from the 9 mandate states of the
Commission, adding that 51 were for PhD,
while 149 were for MSc programme.
She observed that some of them now enjoy
overseas job placements with one employed
as Graduate Assistant in a UK University.
The NDDC boss stated that merit was the
major consideration in the selection process.
She added: “We are proud to announce that
each of them is a worthy beneficiary having
scaled the highly competitive Computer-Based
Test; performed excellently in the tasking Oral
Interview, and therefore, achieved a high
aggregate.
“Interestingly, the candidate with overall best
result is a lady. The lesson here is that under
fair environment and competition, our males
and females can excel and jointly transform
our region into one of our dream.”
The NDDC Director for Education, Health and
Social Services, Mr. Frank Eke-Spiff, urged the
beneficiaries to be worthy ambassadors of the
Niger Delta and use the opportunity to develop
themselves and acquire technical expertise for
the benefit of the people of the region.
Mr. Eke-Spiff, who was represented by Mr.
Goshua Okejoto, deputy director in the
directorate, reminded the beneficiaries that
they owed the Niger Delta a duty to succeed.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr.
Kingsley Amakiri, who is going to the
University of Salford in Manchester for a
doctorate degree in Petroleum Economics,
thanked the NDDC for making the selection
process fair and transparent. He promised
that they would put in their best to be good
ambassadors for the region.
In her own remarks, Miss Genorosa Ibe, who
came out tops in the selection process,
observed that education was the most
profitable investment in the country today,
adding that the NDDC had given them a rare
opportunity to improve themselves for the
benefit of the society.
The beneficiaries of this year’s post-graduate
foreign scholarship programme, had gone
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