The EU Ambassador made this known during a press briefing at the EU Embassy in Abuja, on Monday.
According to her, over five hundred Nigerian youths have so far benefitted from the Erasmus scholarship programme which began in 2019, adding that the 135 Nigerian awardees for 2023, were selected from 15,000 applications from across the world.
She added that the Erasmus class was a flagship programme by the EU to “support education, training and youth exchanges worldwide” between benefitting countries, adding that so far, the country ranked first in Africa, and fifth globally behind Pakistan, India, Brazil, and Bangladesh.
“So far, the European Union has awarded 109 postgraduate Masters Scholarship programmes to Nigerian young people. The Nigerian awardees this year are 135. So, since 2019, five hundred Nigerians have benefitted from the Erasmus Master study programme which makes Nigeria the first in Africa and I think the 5th globally, after Pakistan, India, Brazil, and Bangladesh”.
Isopi explained that the fully funded scholarship programme would run for between 12-24 months at universities across 21 of the 27 member states of the EU, adding that each awardee would have the opportunity to study in at least three different universities during the duration of the programme.
She further stated that the awardees were allowed to pick their areas of study some of which she noted included IT, cybersecurity, medicine, sustainable marine transport, agriculture, human rights and women’s studies, and filmmaking, adding that certificates from the scholarship programme would be jointly presented by a consortium of top universities in the world.
The EU Ambassador, while calling for the help of the media, lamented the lack of awareness of the scholarship programme by Nigerian youths, noting that the country had a higher potential, despite the global competitiveness for the awarded scholarship.
“We know that Nigeria has a much higher potential, and we expect these numbers to continue to grow, and for this to happen we also need your help, because this is a programme that is managed at our HQ level and worldwide. Maybe one of the reasons why we are not always at the top of the talk is because most of the Nigerian young people and students don’t know about this opportunity.”
She also disclosed that the EU will organise two “Study in Europe” fares in Kano and Lagos states, on the 26th and 28th of October respectively, where European member states will “promote education opportunities in Europe”, and attract young talents in the country to study in Europe.
