A total of 107 Nigerian students have arrived Moscow on scholarship by the Russian Government for the 2022-2023 academic session, under the Nigeria-Russia Bilateral Education Agreement.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Nigeria to the Russian Federation with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Belarus, Professor Abdullahi Shehu received 32 of the scholars along with the accompanying officer from the Federal Scholarship Board on their arrival in Moscow at
the Domodedovo International Airport.
The first and second batches of 41 and 23 scholars making it 107, had arrived Russia on November 17 and 26, 2022 respectively.
The Ambassador said majority of the students are to study Medicine, Engineering and Technology and that overall, Nigeria has over 500 students in the Russian Federation under the bilateral education scholarship, while more than 1,500 are private students spread across Russian universities.
Shehu says that the Agreement would strengthen bilateral relations and facilitate knowledge and technology transfer to Nigeria, while noting that the Russia-Ukraine Crisis will not affect Nigerian scholars. Nigeria established bilateral relations with the Soviet Union in 1960.
Some of the scholars promised to return to Nigeria to improve the country with the knowledge they will acquire during their studies.
The Nigerian Bilateral Education Agreement with Russia has been in existence since the Soviet era and took its current form as far back as 1997.
Since then, the Russian Federation has awarded scholarships to several Nigerian citizens to study in various institutions with the scholars returning home to impact knowledge.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
