Cross River State Spent N2bn On Scholarships In Eight Years

The Cross River State Government on Monday disclosed that it had spent about N2bn on local and international scholarship programmes for indigenous graduates in the last eight years of Governor Liyel Imoke-led administration.

The state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Offiong Offiong, who said this during an end-of-tenure ministerial press briefing in Calabar, however, regretted that most of the beneficiaries, especially those on international programmes, did not return to serve the government that sent them abroad.

He said a total of 5,362 beneficiaries were given scholarship in the period under review, adding that the few that returned were engaged by the government in various sectors with priority on Information and Communications Technology.

Offiong said, “We have invested heavily on manpower development through scholarship awards (local and overseas) which have increased the number of skill personnel in Cross River State. So far, over N2bn have been paid out and the substantial number of the beneficiaries are in overseas studying in the areas of sciences and humanities.

“The impact of this is to bridge the gap in the area of skilled manpower which was lacking in the past. However, in the process, we had a challenge in the bond signed by some of these beneficiaries before they went abroad. Many of them escaped coming back after their programmes. Those that came back, especially in the area of ICT, are being engaged.”

source