Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved an increment of 100 per cent on bursary payable to students of the state origin in tertiary institutions across the country.
The Executive Secretary, Lagos State Scholarship Board, Mr AbdurRahman Lekki confirmed this to newsmen in Lagos on Monday.
Lekki said the increment takes effect from 2022/2023 academic session.
According to him, the increment has been announced to the beneficiaries during a meeting with representatives of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Lagos State Chapter and National Union of Lagos State Students (NULASS), at the secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
The bursary increment and other benefits, according to the board secretary, were aimed at supporting the educational needs of students of Lagos State origin to enable them cope with the present economic reality.
Lekki also disclosed that the state government at the just-concluded Ehingbeti Summit had also approved the resolutions on the establishment of Lagos Diaspora Scholarship Funds, which is aimed at providing scholarship and bursary benefits to all Lagos State resident students in tertiary institutions in any part of the country to support their education.
While appealing to the students over the little delay in the payment of the remaining 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 bursary/scholarship benefits, the Board Secretary explained that the delay was necessitated by the on-going data-cleansing/verification exercise across all institutions by the state government to ensure that only qualified students of Lagos State origin benefited from the scheme.
He said that Lagos State scholarship board,through the on-going verification and data-cleansing exercise, discovered that some people who either were no more students or not even students of any higher institution were benefiting from the scheme in a fraudulent way at the expense of the original students of the state that the scheme was meant for.
The Board Secretary noted that prompt payment of both bursary and scholarship benefits for the outstanding years would commence immediately after the on-going data cleansing/verification exercise is completed.
In their response, the leadership of the two students bodies, NANS and NULASS, represented by their presidents, Olusesi Tolulope (NANS) and Shasanya Akinola (NULASS), along with other executive members, dispelled the rumours making the rounds that their members planned to block the Third Mainland Bridge on Monday, October 17, 2022 in protest against delay in the disbursement of the outstanding benefits for the 2020/2021 and 2021/22 academic sessions.
The student leaders said the planned protest, if any, was the handiwork of faceless and disgruntled individuals whose stock in trade was falsehood and disturbance of public peace. (vitalnewsngr.com)
