The Federal Government says it has released N9.5 billion for
the payment of backlog of scholarship allowances owed Nigerian students at home
and abroad up to December 2018.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who was represented
by Alhaja Asta Ndajiwo, the Director, Federal Scholarship Board, disclosed this
during a press conference in Abuja at the weekend.
Adamu said that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari
had already expended over N800 million in 2018 for the payment of scholarship
stipends to students at home and abroad.
According to him, with the current release, the
administration will be spending a total of N10 billion for payment of
scholarship to students in the 2018 budget “and we are determined to do more’’.
”Let me use this opportunity to direct the scholarship board
to immediately undertake all due processes required to clear the backlog of
scholarship allowances owed Nigerian students both home and abroad.
”The Federal Government has already released the sum of N9,
752, 000 for this purpose.
”In the third edition of our weekend press briefing, I
informed you that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has already
expended over N800 million in payment of scholarship stipend.
Adamu said that the board had inherited scholarship
liabilities from the scheme operated by the National Universities Commission
(NUC).
He said that these liabilities should be thoroughly verified
before payment, adding that the board must ascertain that the admissions of
such scholars were still valid and that the scholars were still currently
pursuing their programmes.
He said that the number of scholarship applicants had risen
to 30,000 as against the usual 12,000 applicants for the four scholarship
schemes.
The minister therefore appealed to the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) to call
off their prolonged strikes in the interest of Nigeria, parents and students.
Nigeria has four scholarship opportunities which can be
enjoyed by students to further their academic pursuits.
They are the Commonwealth scholarship, the Bilateral
Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship, the Federal Government scholarship and
the Sustainable Development Goals scholarship.
However, the qualifying examination for the commonwealth
scholarship had just taken place in Abuja on Jan. 17.
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