AWKA – Over 417 applicants from all over the country sat for the common entrance of IG Aguowo Health and Academic scholarship Foundation examination in Awka, Anambra State capital, on Saturday, seeking to be admitted into the scholarship scheme of the foundation.
IG Aguowo Health and Academic Scholarship Foundation offers a full-fledged scholarship covering Health and education of beneficiaries from their present class till graduation in the university.
Addressing the students and their parents who brought them to Professor Kenneth Dike Central E-Library Awka, venue of the entrance examination, the Chief Executive Officer of Best Brain Contest Dr. Frank Igbojindu which is in partnership with the Foundation, and the Executive Director of the foundation Lady Gloria Abanihe said the founder, Ichie Ignatius Onyeka Aguowo, a philanthropist and industrialist who has nothing to do with politics floats to scholarship scheme to fight poverty by training children in school so they can take their pride of place in the society.
According to Igbojindu, the Foundation started in 2020 with students of South East zone but this year, the founder expanded it to cover the 36 states of the federation including the federal capital territory, Abuja.
Currently, he continued, the Foundation has 360 students spanning post primary and tertiary institutions and intends to offer scholarships to additional 200 students this academic year.
He said: “The scholarship is full funded. It will take care of you from your exact class now till you graduate in the higher institution. It will take care of you not just tuition but health.
“After this examination we will select the best not less than 200 from these. About 400 persons are here for the examination.
“Before this we had a press conference to sensitize the people. We shortlisted 400 people and after the examination we will take the best who score from 200 and above”.
According to him, the organisation is sponsored by Volic Group of companies owned by the owner of the foundation.
About the owner, Igbojindu said: “He wants to give back to the society because God has blessed him and believing that education is the bedrock of every society, he said the best he can do is to lift that child out there to take him to school to make sure be becomes somebody in future”.
He explained that participants were selected based on their previous academic performances.
As for when the portal for the scholarship opened, he said it was June 4, 2024.
Lady Abanihe in an interview said over 3000 people applied from which the 400 were selected.
She said the response has been positive, re-emphasising that the scholarship is being used to eradicate poverty by giving children a better future.
Expectedly, parents were excited at the prospect of their children getting the scholarship. One of them, Tony Alukwe, an engineer, said her daughter gained the scholarship last year and this year he brought his son for the examination.
Alukwe said: “The foundation has been of immense help to many families because of the economic crunch we are passing through, especially salary earners. So, if you see a foundation which will pay your school fees, it is of immense relief”.
Another parent Mrs. Ogundu Florence, a school teacher who said she got to know about the foundation through somebody before checking it in the Facebook praised the foundation, saying it spends a lot of money.
She said that apart from the scholarship scheme, it gingers students to read thereby serving as a form of competition.
Students interviewed: master Chukwuemeka Izundu and Miss Anyafu Prisca praised the foundation expressing hope to be successful in the examination.
Result of the entrance examination will be released after 48 hours according to Igbojindu. Candidates were also advised to check the Facebook page of the foundation