Mkpoikana Udoma
17 October 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — The Nigeria LNG Limited, NLNG, has awarded scholarships to 2,956 undergraduates in various universities in the country, the company’s deputy managing director, Sadeeq Mai-Bornu, has said.
He disclosed this at the first NLNG Scholars Day in commemoration of the company’s interventions in education through scholarships.
NLNG offers post-primary, undergraduate and post-graduate scholarships to students in its host communities and across the country.
Mai-Bornu said the company started its education intervention programme for its host communities in 1998 with the Undergraduates Scholarship Scheme which was later expanded to include students from other parts of the country in 2003.
“The NLNG post-pimary scholarship started in 2012 to help high performing primary six pupils in our host communities to access secondary education. The scheme started with 28 beneficiaries and in 2017, this number grew to 222 beneficiaries with a total sum of about N800 million spent to date. 26 of the pioneer scholars of this scheme completed their secondary education in June this year and some have been admitted into various courses in different universities,” he said.
He continued: “The NLNG post graduate scholarship programme was put in place to support the emergence of Nigerian experts in such fields as environmental studies, engineering, management, accountancy, economics, information technology, geology, banking, law and medicine.
“The scheme was launched in October 2012 with an annual intake of between 10 and 15 beneficiaries to study in leading universities in the United Kingdom. The value of the scholarship is between $45,000 and $67,500 per awardee each year, depending on the course of study. 56 young Nigerians have so far benefited from this scholarship.
“The 12 scholarships to be awarded today will bring the total number of beneficiaries of this particular programme to 68. NLNG will be spending about N200 million to cater for tuition, accommodation, living expenses and return tickets to and from UK for all beneficiaries; bringing the total expenditure on this scheme since inception to about N1.2 billion”.
NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. NNPC (49%), Shell Gas B.V.(25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%) and Eni International N.A. N. V. S.àr. l (10.4%).
