The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in Kaduna State has awarded scholarship to 107 foreign students, indigent, and students with special needs.

The ABU Director Public Affairs Directorate, Auwalu Umar, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, September 20, 2024.

Umar noted that 49 postgraduate foreign students benefitted from the scheme.

Umar listed other beneficiaries to include 42 undergraduate foreign students, 10 Nigerian students, and six undergraduate indigent students.

He stated that the ABU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kabiru Bala, while presenting the award letters to the beneficiaries said the scheme was in line with the yearnings of the founding fathers of the university.

He quoted Bala as saying the doors of the university are open to men and women of different races, hence the reason the university has been extending the hand of help to the most vulnerable students.

Bala, who represented at the event by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, Prof. Raymond Bako, added that the scholarship was not coming in cash, rather, through any means to support students to excel.

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“There is always ability in disability, the sky is the starting point for all students with special needs,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor enjoined foreign students to be good ambassadors of the university in their respective countries after the completion of their studies.

Also speaking, the Director of Counseling and Human Development Centre, Dr Sa’adatu Muhammad-Makarfi, said the university decided that foreign students both undergraduate and postgraduate pay the same amount as indigenous students.

This, according to her, is with a view to reducing burden on them due to the harsh economic situation of the country.

Muhammad-Makarfi added that for students with special needs, the university had paid complete tuition fees and accommodation for some, while for those who had already paid their tuition fees, the university had covered their accommodation.

On his part, the President of Students with Special Needs, Mustapha Yahaya, expressed gratitude to the university for looking into their plights.

Yahaya said students with special needs in ABU were more than 15, while appealing to the institution’s management to extend the scholarship to others.

The Star