Nigerian students studying in the United Kingdom and the United States of America under a scholarship from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are alleging that the commission has abandoned them to their fate.
In a mail to BusinessDay, Chijioke Ukwuegbu, an MBA candidate at Yale School of Management, UK, alleged that 210 NDDC scholars have been abandoned in foreign universities.
“We were awarded the scholarship in June 2019 and almost a year later our school fees are yet to be paid. This has led many universities to lock us out from their online portal. Students are having to struggle to eat/pay rent; in fact one of us got infected with COVID-19,” Ukwuegbu wrote.
Also in a number of tweets via his Twitter handle (@Chijistar), Ukwuegbu said, “210 Nigerian MSc & PhD students across UK and USA are facing deportation as NDDC is yet to pay their $30,000 scholarship which was awarded since August 2019. #NDDCPay2019Scholars #Pay2019NDDCScholars.”
According to Ukwuegbu, some of the universities allegedly being owed tuition resorted to sending letters to the affected students.
One of the letters attached to Ukwuegbu’s tweets quoted De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, thus: “Your sponsor Niger Delta has not paid your fee. Please could you chase this up and contact them, we may have to put the fees back to yourself to pay, if we do not receive payment from them.”
Another university, the University of Derby, was quoted in a letter informing the affected students that their scholarships have been suspended.
“We have not received any replies from chasing them and no payment. You are now responsible for the fees of £17,500.00. You will receive a statement in the post next week,” read the attached letter from the university.
BusinessDay contacted the NDDC to inquire about the true situation of things.
In its response, the commission admitted that there was delay in remitting the allowances of the 2019 batch of 210 scholars in the UK and US but blamed it on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the rumpus at the National Assembly.
The commission said it had no intention whatsoever to abandon the scholars and that it was making concerted efforts to ensure that it meets its financial obligations to the beneficiaries of the 2019 Post-Graduate Foreign Scholarship Programme.
“We want to re-state our determination to promote quality education for the people of the Niger Delta region. The stakeholders of the region should disregard unfounded allegations that the students were abandoned,” Charles Odili, NDDC public affairs director, said.
“We are doing everything possible to make sure that the beneficiaries of the scholarship progamme are paid. We have done all the paperwork required for the transfer of the funds. The delay in remitting the payments may have been as a result of some bottlenecks at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown created the problem for the Commission to meet this obligation. Moreover, the current inquest by the National Assembly has not given the Commission ample time to work. However, the processes for payment have gone far and the students will be made to smile in the quickest possible time,” he said.
