Some students from Kebbi state during the weekend expressed displeasure over the non-payment of their scholarship by the state government.
In a meeting with the state governor, Abubakar Bagudu the delegation of 40 students were by Musa Bunza and Abdulrahman Diri from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU Zaria) and Usman Danfodio University Sokoto (UDUS) respectively laid several complaints on a backlog of registration fees among others.
Some of the students from ABU Zaria disclosed that they have not received either registration or scholarship payments for the past eight years.
The student leaders added that previous administrations had made several random payments blindly under executive orders.
“No verifiable records of how many students are from the state or even the amount paid exist, the funds appropriated goes in cash to various people, while most students deny receiving such scholarship provisions.
“A fraudulent observation made was that each time this cash get approved, students have already paid their fees and most of them are not usually refunded,”a student lamented.
Also, some of the Kebbi student indigenes at the Sokoto state University complained of inadequate or lack of accommodation.
In his response to the student’s plight, the state governor promised to accelerate all due payments and to look into ways of providing hostel for Kebbi students.
Bagudu said that there would be a total overhauling of the education sector by his administration which he said will not just cover registration for students but living expenses.
He said with the review of student’s scholarships in the state, it is expected that confirmed students will get up to 40% to 50% increase in funding.
“For the First time ever, we actually now know Kebbi state has 4,097 students in Usman Danfodio University Sokoto alone, this figure was gotten after the government ordered the state scholarship board to carry out a verification exercise of all students,”Bagudu said.
Bagudu further approved the release of N130,051,000 for the payment of registration fees, matriculation of the undergraduate students in the institution.
He ordered that all the students who had offset their fees be refunded.
“Also, approval has already been given for the 60 Kebbi state medical students studying in Sudan and India. Delays are being experienced in transferring the money due to the new foreign exchange guidelines,”he said.
However, the governor gave assurance that the issue was under review by the Central Bank of Nigeria was being looked at holistically by the CBN.
It has also been discovered that most often students from the state do not formally apply for scholarship.
It was gathered that some of the students assume that since they are from a state then scholarship is automatic.
“Scholarship is not an automatic right, it has to be applied for through the scholarship board not the governor,”the governor said.
Before now, scholarships were approved from the office of the state governor but Bagudu noted that the practise will not continue under his administration.
He said that all applications must be sent through the state’s scholarship board and approvals gotten from them.
In a meeting with the state governor, Abubakar Bagudu the delegation of 40 students were by Musa Bunza and Abdulrahman Diri from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU Zaria) and Usman Danfodio University Sokoto (UDUS) respectively laid several complaints on a backlog of registration fees among others.
Some of the students from ABU Zaria disclosed that they have not received either registration or scholarship payments for the past eight years.
The student leaders added that previous administrations had made several random payments blindly under executive orders.
“No verifiable records of how many students are from the state or even the amount paid exist, the funds appropriated goes in cash to various people, while most students deny receiving such scholarship provisions.
“A fraudulent observation made was that each time this cash get approved, students have already paid their fees and most of them are not usually refunded,”a student lamented.
Also, some of the Kebbi student indigenes at the Sokoto state University complained of inadequate or lack of accommodation.
In his response to the student’s plight, the state governor promised to accelerate all due payments and to look into ways of providing hostel for Kebbi students.
Bagudu said that there would be a total overhauling of the education sector by his administration which he said will not just cover registration for students but living expenses.
He said with the review of student’s scholarships in the state, it is expected that confirmed students will get up to 40% to 50% increase in funding.
“For the First time ever, we actually now know Kebbi state has 4,097 students in Usman Danfodio University Sokoto alone, this figure was gotten after the government ordered the state scholarship board to carry out a verification exercise of all students,”Bagudu said.
Bagudu further approved the release of N130,051,000 for the payment of registration fees, matriculation of the undergraduate students in the institution.
He ordered that all the students who had offset their fees be refunded.
“Also, approval has already been given for the 60 Kebbi state medical students studying in Sudan and India. Delays are being experienced in transferring the money due to the new foreign exchange guidelines,”he said.
However, the governor gave assurance that the issue was under review by the Central Bank of Nigeria was being looked at holistically by the CBN.
It has also been discovered that most often students from the state do not formally apply for scholarship.
It was gathered that some of the students assume that since they are from a state then scholarship is automatic.
“Scholarship is not an automatic right, it has to be applied for through the scholarship board not the governor,”the governor said.
Before now, scholarships were approved from the office of the state governor but Bagudu noted that the practise will not continue under his administration.
He said that all applications must be sent through the state’s scholarship board and approvals gotten from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment