26 October 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – A total of 509 students from various universities in Nigeria have benefited from the 2016 edition of the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC’s, university scholarship awards.
Speaking during the award ceremony at the University of Port Harcourt, the General Manager, External Relations of SPDC, Mr. Igo Weli, said Shell has over the years sustained its commitment to education in Nigerian and has widened the scope of the scholarship scheme to cater for different levels of the educational ladder.
Weli said this includes secondary schools, post graduate programmes, and the cradle-to-carrier scholarship, which targets indigent primary school leavers from public schools in SPDC’s areas of operation.
He stated that the scholarship scheme, which started from a little beginning in 1953, has endured for over half a century as a leading private sector-driven sponsorship in education in the country.
“The driving objective is to develop functional citizens that can confidently face life and compete favourably with their counterparts from anywhere in the world,” he said.
He commended the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as well as the SPDC Joint Venture partners for their encouragement in putting the nation on the path of attaining UNESCO’s goal of “Education for All”, and in meeting the sustainable development goal in education.
While charging the beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme to make the best use of the opportunity, Mr. Weli also thanked the governments of Rivers, Bayelsa, Abia, Delta and Imo States for their support.
Also speaking, Abia State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ikechi Mgbeoji, commended SPDC for the scholarship scheme, and tasked the beneficiaries to make themselves worthy ambassadors of the scheme by giving back to the society.
Speaking on behalf of the benefiting students, the overall best student in the pre-scholarship test, Chidera Okonkwo, commended SPDC for the scholarship, and promised to sustain the standard of excellence set by the scheme.
Okonkwo also commended the transparency of the scholarship scheme, in which 509 students were selected on merit out of the over 12 million students that applied for the scholarship.