The tardiness of Nigerian government is causing its citizens to lose out of the registration for January 2021 session of India’s tele-education programme for African students.
The education, which comes with full scholarship, is for graduate, diploma and certificate courses and commenced on 8 December 2020.
Nigeria is the only country missing from the scholarship for citizens of partner African countries.
The 17 countries already signed up for its citizens to benefit include Benin, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Mauritius.
Others include Mozambique, Guinea Republic, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Uganda and Zambia.
The e-VidyaBharti(Tele-education) and e-ArogyaBharti(Tele-medicine) Project (e-VBAB) was launched on 7th October 2019 to provide access for African students to over 500 courses in various disciplines including engineering and technology, education, mathematics and sciences, education, humanities and arts and teacher training.
The e-VBAB would also offer 15000 scholarships to Africans to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate courses from premier public and private Universities of India.
A source said that “the Indian draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on E-VBAB is pending at the Government of Nigeria (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health) for more than one and a half years without any action on it. It is so embarrassing.
“Even with this embarrassment becoming public knowledge, nothing has been done to fast track the process to enable Nigerian citizens to benefit from the over 100 scholarships. It is humiliating for me as a Nigerian as 17 African countries have already signed and Nigeria is yet to sign despite regular reminders and follow up by the Indian High Commission.
“It is time for the Nigerian Government to sign the tele-education MOU with India and quickly too to enable Nigerian students to benefit from the programme. the Indians are not stopping Nigerians from accessing the scholarships. It is the tardiness of the Nigerian government that is stopping Nigerians.”
According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, “offering quality online Degree, Diploma and Certificate Programmes from premier Indian universities, the iLearn portal is designed to leverage the impact of the digital revolution on higher education.
“Offering full scholarships to students and professionals in participating countries in Africa, iLearn is an initiative by the Government of India under the e-VBAB Network Project.”
