By Omar Bah
The Federal Republic of Nigeria has offered some 550 scholarships to The Gambia for the 2017/2018 academic year.
This was revealed by Information Minister Demba A Jawo whilst hosting his regular monthly press conference on the activities of the government yesterday. He said 500 of the scholarships will be for undergraduate studies while the remaining 50 is for post graduate courses.
“Already the ministry of higher education research, science and technology has opened applications and shortlisted candidates for the undergraduate scholarships who sat to a joint admission and matriculation board (JAMB) examination on the 30th September, 2017 in The Gambia.
“The examination was supervised by JAMB officials and WAEC. The results of the examination are yet to be released by the JAMB office in Abuja,” he said.
He said 50 additional scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate studies (Masters and PHD levels) have been received from the Government of Senegal for the 2017/2018 academic year. “Out o f this, 25 are opened to the general public in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), health, agriculture, French etc,” Jawo said..
He said 10 scholarships will be given to staff of UTG in the areas of STEM, health and agriculture; 10 scholarships to GTTI for TVET training; and 5 scholarships to The Gambia College to support capacity development in teacher training.
Minister Jawo added that MoHERST has also negotiated with the Senegalese Government for Gambian students wishing to study in Senegalese universities/institutions as private candidates to be admitted as home students, to pay local rates as Senegalese students.
Morocco scholarships
The Information minister also disclosed that the annual offer of 30 scholarships from The Kingdom of Morocco to The Gambia still continues.
“Interviews are conducted this week for the 2017/2018 academic year. The final shortlist will be forwarded to the Moroccan authorities for consideration and necessary action,” he said.
On Jammeh’s Limousines
Jawo said: “We know during the former regime lots of vehicles were bought and a lot of them, expensive ones are still parked at State House and other places. The government is right now taking an inventory, so it is only when the inventory is done that government will decide what to do about some of those things.”
He said there is a possibility that some of them would be sold to interested persons, both in and outside of the country because they would be very expensive for government to use.
