Governor Babagana Zulum, with Isaac Balami, founder of Isaac Balami University of Aeronautics and Management, and his team
Borno State governor Babagana Zulum has announced a plan to sponsor indigent youths for degree programmes at the newly established Isaac Balami University of Aeronautics and Management in Maiduguri.
He pledged on Thursday, when the institution’s founder, Isaac Balami, visited Government House with members of the university’s management team.
Zulum directed the Ministry of Education and the State Scholarship Board to begin selecting candidates, stressing that the scheme would prioritise young people with academic promise but without the means to pursue costly aviation courses.
He warned that the selection must be merit-based. “I do not want anyone connected to the governor, the deputy governor, or the commissioner to be selected. It must be purely on merit, and I will vet the list,” he said.
Balami, an aircraft engineer and a beneficiary of a Borno State scholarship earlier in his career, thanked the government for its support. He announced that the university would train 54 Borno indigenes—two from each local government area—in aircraft planning and aircraft technology at no cost as a gesture of gratitude.
He said the institution was created to address skill gaps in Nigeria’s aviation sector, adding that graduates would leave with both degree qualifications and international certification in aircraft maintenance, avionics, simulation and aeronautical operations. Students, he said, would spend every academic break in the hangar to gain industry experience.
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