Academic City College, a private university in Accra, Ghana, has offered scholarship worth $40,000 to Ekene Franklin Ezeunala, the candidate who scored 347 – the highest score – in the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The College Senior Admissions Manager (Nigeria), Mrs Ogechi Ekpe, said on the sidelines of a workshop organised by the institution for schools and parents at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, at the weekend that the scholarship would cover tuition and boarding for the duration of his programme at the university.
“We have a full scholarship for Ekene. He was supposed to be here today (Friday) but we did not talk about the scholarship today because he was not here. We were to present a scholarship of $40,000 to the boy from year one till he graduates,” she said.
When asked how Ekene would be informed about the scholarship since he was not at the event, Mrs Ekpe said: “We were hoping he would be here today so our President can give him the award. The school is here now. We have to go there and see if we can either take him to Ghana or get our President to come again and give him the scholarship. The scholarship is for real. It is called the Presidential Scholarship so the school pays everything including the hostel fees.”
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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), also stipulates 16 years as the minimum age for candidates to take the examination during the admission year they apply. However many private varsities in Nigeria accept students who are less than 16.
Mrs. Ekpe said that Academic City College, which offers programmes in Engineering, Business, Communication Arts and Information Technology, accepts students from 15 years of age because it has system in place to monitor them.