Why Nigerian petroleum companies are sponsoring students to study in India

Naturally, good education is the only legacy that
parents can bequeath to their wards. And to help
achieve this mission, Aditya, an India-based
educational institution is set to establish a branch in
Nigeria. In a visit to Nigeria, recently, Mr. N Satish
Reddy, Vice Chairman of Aditya Educational
Institutions, Kakinada, India spoke to Campus Sun
on what he hopes to achieve.
Excerpts
What is your main focus of coming to Nigeria?
As a matter of fact, last month was my first visit to
Nigeria. My main focus was on education. We want to
recruit students to study in our institution in India. I
have seen a lot of opportunities for about 200
Nigerian students who have been in our institutions in
the last two years. And the Patrick Fernandez
Foundation, a charity organization has done well in
this regard. In view of this, I had to come down to
Nigeria to meet with parents and students who are
willing to come to Aditya to study.
We are gradually making progress here. Presently, we
have secured some parcels of land where we plan to
start an ICT centre within the next year or two maybe
in the next coming year or two.
What distinguishes your institution from others
abroad?
Aditya, which means “the Rising Sun” is unique in
many ways.
We are poised to empower Nigerian youths to make
sure that they are able to secure the right jobs once
they complete their education because as you know
India is known as an ICT hub but it is gradually
moving to Africa and in fact Nigeria. So after much
thought, we decided to grab the opportunity and do
something in Nigeria. Having been here to take
personal assessment, it is our resolve to do
something.
While on this visit, I met and conferred with a couple
of petroleum companies who are ready to sponsor
some students. And by giving us enough push like
they did in the last academic year, we currently have
over 50 students from Nigeria in various departments
like Engineering, ICT, and Management. There are lots
of prospects in the petroleum and electrical sector in
Nigeria. On this premise, I have registered two
companies, Infigo and Solice. Infigo is a an energy
company basically in the Oil & gas and Power sector
because in India, there is need for LPG, so we can
export some to India from Nigeria. The power sector
is also booming like never before and we thought we
want to contribute our expertise too. Solice Company
will only be looking at the educational sector in Africa
and in Nigeria.
And we will like to set up ICT centres in all parts of
Nigeria of which is a major empowerment and
sustainable development projects for the teeming
Nigerian youths.

These are the ways these companies can also bring
benefits to the local communities. If things work out
well with all the support, we can recreate what people
have benefitted back in India in Nigeria’s educational
system. It is our desire to set up Indian kind of
schools here in Nigeria because we understand from
parents and students that they have value and
respect for the Indian schools especially as we have
lots of migrants from India to Nigeria.
How do you intend to spread out?
I am looking at the capital city in Abuja. I need to
check the capacity of the faculty coming here and the
cost of the training. Once we get started, we would
want to touch other areas but first, I have to talk with
the Ministry of Education and my partner, because he
is also looking at education through his charity
works, especially, in the rural areas where we can
establish ICT centres, starting from Abuja, then we
can reach out to other parts of Nigeria probably in the
next five years. It is our hope to establish, at least,
5-6 schools in Nigeria.
How do you hope to impact on the power sector?
Going through the newspapers and other media
outlets, I am attracted to what the Nigerian
government is doing to improve the power sector. As
you know, the main source of power in Nigeria is from
gas, which is a natural resource here so you don’t
need to purchase it. We also learn from the papers
that the World Bank has come forward to give a lot of
funding. I can utilise my contact in India to come into
the country to set up solar plants. I can equally get
into the picture and influence them to get it to install
at a lower cost for the development of the country.
Will the employees be sourced from India?
No, our employees will be locally sourced from
Nigeria. The first set will be students that came from
my school. By the time they will graduate from
college which may take a period of two years and I
am able to set up the place, then I can recruit my
own students and give them more job opportunities
here in Nigeria. I can then talk with confidence
because of the quality of training they have received
from Aditya. It will also boost up my student
placement from Nigeria as well as increase my
chances of admitting more students from here.
That is the main reason I came back to Nigeria
because so many students believe in Aditya in India.
Of course, that belief has pulled them together to help
their families and countries.
Let’s talk about the oil and gas investment in
Nigeria. How do you want to make use of this
sector?
The world is talking about green energy and India is
also part of this too. There is lot of scope about
Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG. The Nigeria
government is talking about using the LPG instead of
using other gases. They want to make use of it in a
big way. So, we have found the natural resources in
Nigeria and if we take the LPG to India it will help
their economy and also help the Nigerian economy.
What will it take for an average Nigerian student to
get admission into Aditya and what is the cost
implication?

If you are looking at a course like engineering, what
we are looking at is $5,000 per year for four years
that is a total of $20,000. Apart from tuition fees,
what we charge for food and accommodation is
$2,000. Again in this $5,000 if students are coming
with good grades, we give them scholarship of
between 15-20% percent reductions. If they also
make fantastic grades, we can give them up to about
30 percent scholarship reductions.
There are lots of Nigerian students who are
interested in studying medicine. Does Aditya offer
medicine?
For the moment, Aditya does not offer medicine but
hopefully, in the near future, we may have no option.