By Ayo Onikoyi

A Chief Lecturer at the Delta State Polytechnic (DSPZ) Ozoro, Mrs. Anita Amiaya, has been awarded the prestigious Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Foreign Post Graduate PhD Scholarship for the 2018/2019 session.

Earlier on, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) announced its Foreign Post Graduate Scholarship Programme for applicants who hail from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria for the 2018/2019 session.

Mrs. Amiaya, an education and business education scholar who has served as a Departmental Head, Dean, and Deputy Rector at the Delta State Polytechnic (DSPZ) Ozoro, will be embarking on the doctoral scholarship to pursue her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, Career and Technical Education at Purdue University, United States. When asked about her plans for doctoral studies in the United States, Mrs. Amiaya detailed her desire to improve research methodology and implement program evaluation towards fostering career development in entrepreneurship and business education. Her research interests include special needs populations, leadership development, and generalizable skills instruction.

In the past, Mrs. Amiaya has conducted reputable research in business education, where she investigated the impact, challenges, and benefits of integrating new technologies into office technology and management curriculums at Delta State and Nigerian Polytechnics, Ozoro. Also, she has assessed factors for promoting quality business education, teaching strategies, and entrepreneurship education success in Colleges of Education and Universities in Nigeria.

The NDDC Director, Education, Health and Social Services, Goshua Okejoto, disclosed that the NDDC has extended its foreign postgraduate scholarships to prospective beneficiaries in Education Studies for the 2018/2019 scheme. Furthermore, he stated that “The NDDC is using the programme to showcase the best in the Niger Delta, and this has been justified by the academic performance of previous beneficiaries.” In addition to opportunities in management studies added in 2017, Okejoto said the awards in education this year were to help universities in the Niger Delta to engage high-caliber staff to grow the nation’s tertiary institutions’ capacity in turning out quality graduates.

In a statement signed by the NDDC’s Managing Director/CEO, Nsima Ekere believes the scholarship will “equip our young people and erudite scholars with relevant training and skills for effective participation in the local content programme of the Federal Government, as well as enable them to acquire specialization in their fields of study and thus compete globally in various professional disciplines.” The Director, in his remarks, urged the beneficiaries to make the best use of the opportunity given to them to acquire technical expertise for the benefit of the people of the Niger Delta region. Ekere stated that the successful ones were selected through a transparent electronic examination conducted at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. Furthermore, Ekere said the Foreign Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme, which was started in 2010, was meant to equip Niger Delta youths with relevant training and skills.

Furthermore, The NDDC director said he was optimistic that the process adopted in selecting beneficiaries of the foreign scholarship scheme would continue to produce first-class performers. In appreciating the NDDC for the PhD scholarship granted to her, an elated Mrs. Amiaya said, “I am so grateful to the NDDC for bestowing on me this invaluable opportunity to explore further ways to improve entrepreneurship and business education in Nigeria through research and its methods. I believe to whom much has been given, much is expected. I promise to utilize the experiences and skills acquired in the next step of my academic journey to impact the grooming of high-quality higher institution graduates from Nigeria and the world in years to come.”