Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has alleged that the overseas scholarship scheme of the immediate past administration of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso in the state was a fraud, carried out with the connivance of a contractor.
He argued that instead of following due process to secure admissions for the students, the government engaged the services of what he called “a contractor”, who collects money improperly from both the government and the institutions, turning the whole admission exercise into a racket.
“When they want to pay the bursaries of the students, they give the contractor, who in turn takes his share before remitting the money to the students. Similarly, when they want to pay the school fees, they send the money to him, to take his share, then give the rest to the institutions”, the governor claimed.
Ganduje made the assertion while receiving the new executives of National Association of Kano state Students, NAKSS, who visited him lamented that such arrangement was fraudulent and unacceptable to his administration.
He explained, however, that his administration is determined to regularise the states’ scholarship process so that the students continue with their academic endeavors conveniently.
“While some state governments are bringing their students back home because of economic recession, we are sustaining the foreign scholarship scheme until our children complete their studies and return home”, he assured.
Ganduje further stated that his government inherited a huge liability of unpaid scholarships for students in foreign universities, pointing out that although effort was made to settle some of the debt, about N3 billion is still being owed to the institutions.
