President Muhammadu Buhari is offering full scholarships to three secondary school students for studies at PhD levels.
The students, under the Young Nigerian Scientists Presidential awards, will get the scholarships to study at any university of their choice in Nigeria from the first degree to PhD.
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who announced the offer, said the programme, which began in 2017, is meant to encourage young Nigerians to show interest in sciences.
He said the students were picked from the 774 local government areas (LGAs) where they were the best in their LGAs, states and ended up representing their states.
Onu, who presented certificates to the overall best three students yesterday in Abuja, explained that for this year’s competition, participating students in the programme came from 23 states and that the examinations were taken electronically, unlike in previous years when they were manual.
He said: “Nigeria is looking forward to a day it will win the Nobel Laureate Prize in Science. This can only be done when young people are encouraged to study sciences.
“The best three students will have the privilege of shaking the hands of Mr. President during the Science and Technology Expo that will begin on March 14, 2022. The President will be offering the best students scholarships to any Nigerian university of their choice to study any science subject from their first degree up to PhD level.”
“Before the commencement of the programme, we wrote letters to all the governors and local government chairmen in all the 774 LGAs to give their students the opportunity to represent their states. The students are tested in four subjects of Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry.”
