Why we offered $40,000 scholarship to UTME best, Ekene, by Ghanaian varsity

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 university, which offers programmes in Engineering, Business, Communication Arts and Information Technology, accepts students from 15 years of age because it has a system in place to monitor them.

Ekene, who turns 15 today (Monday), is below 16, the minimum age benchmark to gain admission into his preferred choice – the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
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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.

She said: “That is why we want him there.  Nigerian schools won’t give him admission but we will.  We start admitting from 15 which is why we have a very visible Dean of Students’ Affairs. We make sure that they go to class, especially foreign students.  You cannot be in the hostel during learning hours.  Dean Ruth, that is her name, she normally goes round.

“There are parents that pay for their kids to be off campus but all international students must be on campus because we don’t want them to have immigration issues; we don’t want them to go off track and start doing drugs. We actually insist that in the first year at least they must be on campus.”

The Ghanaian institution became the second institution to announce a full scholarship to Ekene, who just completed his West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) at Meiran Community Senior High School, Meiran, Lagos.

The first was Gregory University, Uturu in Abia State.