– Satish, Vice Chairman, Aditya Educational Institute
By Josfyn Uba
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.