• Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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US universities invest $9m on Nigerian students

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The United States has said that its universities spend about $9 million on scholarship on Nigerian students as about 13, 000 Nigerian students seek higher education in the US every year.

Cultural Affairs Officer of the United States Embassy in Nigeria, Malia V Heroux, said this during events organised to mark 20th annual Education USA College Fair 2019, with the theme: “Solidifying Connections and Exploring New Frontiers,” which held in Abuja on Wednesday.

She said, “the 9 million dollars are from US universities because the US government does not do scholarship but individual US universities do.”

She noted that the number of Nigerian students in the US is 13, 000, which is one-third of 39,000 Africans studying in the US each year. She added that there were a very wide variety of programmes that are being offered in both the universities in the US and the ones in Nigeria, adding that there was a lot of linkages between universities in the US and Nigerian universities.

She also said there were a lot of Nigerian graduate students looking to come back to the country after they have completed their undergraduate education in the US.

Also speaking, Kathleen Fitzgibbon, US Charge’ D Affairs, said they also support education programme through the USAID and focus on primary schools and high schools and strengthening literacy, adding that a section in the US Embassy also deals with the universities.