The Federal Government has revealed the release of N9.5 billion for the payment of backlog of scholarship arrears owed Nigerian students at home and abroad.
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, who reiterated the commitment of the present administration to the academic needs of Nigerian youth, said the government of Muhammadu Buhari had already expended over N800 million in 2018 for the payment of scholarship stipends to students home and abroad.
He said, “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 stated that all the liabilities will be subjected to thorough scrutiny before payment. He added that the board must ascertain that the admissions of those students are valid and that they are still currently pursuing their programmes.
He said that the number of scholarship applicants had witnessed an exponential rise to 30,000 as against the usual 12,000 applicants for the four scholarship schemes.
The minister therefore leveraged the opportunity to appeal 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.
