The executive secretary (ES), Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board, Prof Yahya Ibrahim, has said that the Governor Uba Sani-led administration has expanded scholarships to remote local government areas and those from humble backgrounds without lowering standards.
He added that students in remote rural communities are now benefitting from foreign scholarships which has expanded and enriched the Kaduna State Scholarship award system.
Prof Ibrahim who stated this yesterday during a news conference in Kaduna, maintained that Governor Sani has refocused the scholarship board to reflect his administration’s policy of inclusion without sacrificing merit.
The ES argued that the last set of beneficiaries who graduated as medical doctors showed that the lower segment of Kaduna State was carried along in the selection process.
Prof Ibrahim commended the governor for giving the young medical doctors employments to boost the stock of personnel in public hospitals.
“In the past, beneficiaries of foreign scholarships were mostly from urban local governments like Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Igabi, Zaria, Sabon Gari, Jema’a and Zangon Kataf. But the all-inclusive government of Senator Uba Sani changed the narrative within the shortest time.
“Prior to the coming of Governor Sani, the beneficiaries were mostly from upper and middle-class families who attended elite secondary schools and whose parents can sponsor their wards to any university abroad.
“For example, there was a female beneficiary who lived in Television Village, Kaduna, whose father is deceased among the new medical doctors.
“There’s another one from Jaba local government whose father is a retired civil servant.
“From Ikara local government, there’s also someone who benefited from the foreign scholarship whose father is also a retired civil servant, and today, he is a medical doctor,” he noted.
