Borno, AUW to offer scholarships to 100 female candidates

By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri THE Borno state government and Ahfad

University for Women (AUW) in Sudan; are to offer scholarships to 100

girls to pursue their degree programmes in various disciplines,

including medicine and sciences.



students are to be drawn from the state's 27 councils by the Borno State

Ministry of Higher Education.

This was disclosed Friday in Maiduguri in a statement from Senior Special

Adviser on Media and Strategy, Isa Umar Gusau.

He said the scholarships followed an agreement reached between Governor

Kashim Shettima of Borno state and President of AUW, Prof. Gasim Badri,

when the governor led a delegation to the University in Khartoum, Sudan on

Thursday.

The governor, according to the statement, demanded for more slots of female

citizens of Borno state to pursue their various degree programmes at the

Sudanese varsity.

The statement reads in part: "The educational institution; which is the

longest serving private University in Sudan; has been in existence in the last

50 years in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

The University belongs to a family with a generation of educational scholars

in Sudan; and is a nonprofit institution which has been awarding scholarships

to female citizens from over 20 countries.

"The Sudanese University has its roots traced to a private Elementary School

for Girls established in 1907 before it became a College for Women in 1966;

while in 1995 the Sudan National Council for Higher Education granted full

University status to the institution making Ahfad University for Women (AUW)

not only the oldest and largest private University in Sudan but also the only

private female university in Africa."

Gusau explained that after persuasions by Governor Kashim Shettima,

highlighting challenges faced by Borno State as a result of the negative

impacts of the Boko Haram insurgency with adverse effects on educational

sector, Shettima and Prof. Badri agreed that 100 female citizens of Borno

State are to be admitted into the school in the next academic session on

50-50 scholarship basis.

Prof. Badri therefore announced the award of scholarship to 50 female

citizens of Borno State to pursue different degree courses while Shettima

announced that the Borno State Government will sponsor another 50 women

to pursue degrees in medicine at the University.

Shettima said he has bias for female education because women in Borno

State have been relegated for many years in terms of education.

"If you educate a woman, you educate a nation," said the Governor in the

statement.

He also said that the Ministry of Higher Education, led by Alhaji Usman Jaha,

who was in the delegation; will ensure that all 27 councils and multi

religious and ethnic groups in the state; are fairly represented in selection of

100 female candidates for admission into the varsity.

"When the students are admitted into this Women University, they will add to

the existing 60 women currently studying medicine in two other Universities in

Khartoum, Sudan, under the Borno state government scholarship scheme,"

said Gusau

He said the offer of scholarships to female candidates; was to lay an

educational foundation for another era of massive human capacity

development of female citizens in Borno state.