§ Mr. Spellerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what financial help has been given by Her Majesty's Government to students from the countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone over each of the past five years; and what is the anticipated level of aid for 1982–83.
§ Mr. Neil MartenThe assistance which the ODA gives comes prdominantly from our Government to Government technical co-operation programme in the form of training awards fro candidates nominated by the overseas government for courses of development value. Awards normally meet the costs of fees, maintenance and other necessary expenses including travel to and from the UK. Expenditure in the past five calendar years was as follows:
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£000s 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 (provisional) Nigeria 402 345 437 *1,056 *1,690 Ghana 595 663 755 1,034 707 Gambia 214 263 316 349 290 Sierra Leone 233 295 403 484 457 * Gross expenditure of which part (50 per cent. for 1981) is recovered from the Nigerian Government under cost-sharing arrangements. The technical co-operation training allocations for 1982–83 are as follows:
£ Nigeria *1.1 million Ghana 878,000 Gambia 478,000 Sierra Leone 600,000 * 50 per cent. of a joint programme budgeted at £2.2 million.