The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has commenced the verification, monitoring and evaluation of beneficiaries of its Foreign Post Graduate Scholarship programme in the United Kingdom. This was as the Commission visited the Coventry University, United Kingdom for the verification exercise. Speaking at a meeting with representatives of the Coventry University, held at the campus of institution, the NDDC Acting Executive Director Projects, Dr Cairo Ojoughoh, assured the benefitying students that the Commission would pay all outstanding scholarship and claims once the verification exercise was concluded.
The NDDC team, which included an Assistant Director in Education, Health and Social Services, Mrs. Idara Akpabio and the Managing Director of Marg Education International Limited, the consultants to NDDC, Mr. Godson Ideozu, was said to have been given the comprehensive list of its scholars in Coventry University by the institution’s Sponsored Student Manager, Laura Munoz Delgado. Ojougboh said that the visit to the Coventry University became imperative to verify the number of scholars, examine their performance and check on their well-being, especially in the light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Executive Director, who further noted he was impressed by the way the university had treated the NDDC scholars and their swift response in providing a list of the Commission’s scholarship beneficiaries at the institution for the verification process, insisted that in order to track the students’ progress in the future, there should be a more comprehensive reporting structure. Ojuogboh, however, explained that the NDDC needed to verify the scholarship awards because of discrepancies in the number of students and the fact that some of those awarded the scholarships in 2019 did not leave Nigeria for studies in the UK.