merican-based Nigerian Higher Education Foundation (NHEF) has promised to offer more scholarships and specialised training opportunities to eligible students of the University of Port Harcourt.

Speaking during a courtesy visit to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ndowa Lale, on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, Chairman of the Foundation, Mr Wale Adeosun, explained that his organisation was founded by the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2004 to advance tertiary education in Nigeria. He assured the Vice Chancellor of NHEF unwavering commitment to enhance the capacity of higher institutions in Nigeria to deliver world-class education to students.

“The idea behind this initiative is to help eligible students to be self-sustaining in their educational pursuit. The NHEF currently provides fundraising opportunity, collaboration and training support to selected partner universities in Nigeria. We are currently partnering the Ahmadu Bello University, Bayero University, University of Ibadan and University of Port Harcourt. We have lately added the University of Lagos and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. We also support these universities in the three key areas of Advancement and Development, Alumni Development and Faculty Exchange programmes and the NHEF Scholarship Programme which commenced three years ago,” Mr Adeosun told the Vice Chancellor.

In her contribution, NHEF Executive Director, Miss Faridah Usman, described the NHEF scholarship scheme as a career development programme meant to address skills gap in the key sectors of the economy. Mr Adeosun further disclosed that his organisation collaborates with educational institutions to identify talented and highly-motivated Nigerian students who receive broad-ranging on-the-job training required by employers. Receiving the two-member delegation, a visibly delighted Vice Chancellor, Professor Lale, commended the NHEF for including the University on its list of beneficiaries. “I am quite excited about the career programme of this Foundation, which is very critical, giving the global unemployment rate of graduates today. It has become necessary that graduates are equipped with soft skills that would expose them to cope with life on graduation. Our graduates need to be trained to understand the language spoken in the industry today. We thank you for driving this partnership and I am glad that we are finally able to interface with our benefactors. Let us know when you are ready to start a Centre in this University because we have been eagerly looking forward to this partnership,” Professor Lale told his guests.

Speaking earlier, Director of the University of Port Harcourt Foundation (UPHF), Professor Henry Alapiki, recalled that the NHEF has been very supportive in manpower development amongst Nigerian university students. “The essence of the visit is to create better awareness of the organisation’s activities through interface with students in their penultimate year. NHEF has been giving scholarship and internship training opportunities to Nigerian students, including our own students,” Professor Alapiki disclosed. The team later met with students at the Institute of Petroleum Studies Seminar Room to enlighten them on available scholarship opportunities. Miss Usman appealed to talented and motivated students of the University of Port Harcourt to apply for the scholarship at www.thehef.org, stating that the application window which has been on since April 15, 2019 would finally close on May 30, 2019.