CommonWealth Scholarship: About 2000 Nigerians apply for 2022/2023 awards 

About 2000 Nigerians have applied for the 2022/2023 Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan CSFP. 

Declaring open the 2022/2023 Scholarship and Fellowship Plan Nomination Interview, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, said since the inception of the London managed award in 1959, more than 30,000 individuals have benefited from the awards and the majority of the awardees from Nigeria have returned to make significant contributions to the development of the nation, particularly the tertiary institutions.  

The Permanent Secretary said the nomination interview was to kick start another nomination process for the most qualified Nigerians to compete globally with candidates from other Commonwealth countries, for the CSFP Awards. 

“This of course, is in line with the overall objective of the scheme which is to ensure that the returnee scholars make meaningful impact in their various disciplines, it is instructive to emphasize that this interview is keenly contested, due to the limited number of awards”  

The Minister emphasised that the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission’s nomination criteria give high priority to applications that present the strongest relevance to national development. 

 Reeling out the rating scale for the awards, Echono stated that Part of the screening exercise involved grading of  applications and submissions based on academic merit, quality of study plan and likely development impact on completion of the study.  

“Part of the ratings for the awards was concluded during your completion of the Electronic Application System (EAS) forms”  

The Permanent Secretary urged urged the panelists to continue to adhere to the set criteria of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) with a view to presenting the usual high quality candidates . 

“Successful nominees will be competing with other candidates from across the Commonwealth, and Nigeria’s success rate will also be a barometer for measuring the diligence and thoroughness that was put in by the experts assembled for this exercise.” 

The Secretary of the Federal Scholarship Board, Nwajiwo Asta, stated that due to the effects of COVID-19 Pandemic, only the PhD candidates were interviewed in year  2020. 

Nwajiwo added that both Masters and PhD programmes were made open for the year 2022/2023. 

She stressed that the grading score will be based on academic merit, quality of research proposal and its positive impacts on the society. 

 “The essence of the information is to alert the candidates to be disciplined and focused during the exercise. 

Applications for the CSFP were done through the Electronic Application System (EAS) .  

Nnenna.O