The Nigerian government has named an African American billionaire Robert Smith, as the sponsor funding the education of 24 Chibok girls at an American university. Robert Smith has also expressed interest in financing the education of the recently rescued 21 Chibok girls and those that will be rescued in the future too as well according to a report by News Agency of Nigeria.
“Smith has offered to pay for the education of the 21 released through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free,’’ Shehu said while addressing the media in Abuja, Nigeria
According to Forbes, the Nigerian government is treating the recently released 21 Chibok girls as adoptees of the Federal Government. The girls will be admitted through negotiation to the prestigious American University of Nigeria (AUN), which costs anywhere, from $5,000 to $11,000 a year per student. The billionaire will foot the education bills plus personal costs of getting the education.
A senior special assistant on the Media to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari revealed the identity of the 54 year old billionaire, who has offered to help all other Chibok girls that when they are eventually set free from their captors, the Boko Haram terrorists.
Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female high school students from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, in northeast Nigeria, on the night of the 14th of April 2014.
Forbes listed Smith as the 274th richest man in the United States as at 27 December, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Smith is a self-made man billionaire, with money in private equity investments.
