Lagos Scholarship Board to spend N1bn annually
…technical college students to get N100,000
The Executive Secretary, Lagos State Scholarship Board, Mr. Omotayo Fakolujo, has explained that the boards is planning on spending one billon Naira annually
Fakuloju urged students of Lagos origin to tap into the state’s bursary and scholarship scheme to ensure optimal utilisation of the N1 billion yearly budget allotted to the initiative.
Speaking to reporters at the Board’s Iyana Ipaja office, Fakolujo said the government had budgeted N2.5 billion for the scheme but it was reduced to N1.5 billion, then N1 billion because enough students did not apply in the past.
“We don’t have problem with funds. Once you qualify we pay you. The government allocated N2.5 billion for scholarship. When people were not coming to apply, it was reduced to N1.5 billion. Now it is N1 billion,” he said.
For instance, he said though Lagos State University (LASU) had over 4,000 students from the state screened, only over 1,000 benefited from the last exercise.
To this end, Fakolujo urged indigenes of Lagos studying in tertiary institutions across Nigeria to apply to access the bursary and scholarship.
Once certified to be indigenes of Lagos, tertiary students can access the N25,000 bursary yearly until they graduate. He said the board had proposed 100 per cent upward review of the bursary to the government.
Fakolujo also said technical college students of Lagos extraction attending the state’s five technical colleges would be getting N100,000 scholarship for the first time from the board.
“Once you get into the school and we identify you are from Lagos, we will pay you.
“We will do some screening but not Computer Based Test (CBT) like the others just to encourage them that being in a technical college does not mean that they are second rate citizens, but are instrumental to our economic development,” he said.
To access the scholarship worth N100,000 for students of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, Fakolujo said the applicants needed to meet the additional criteria of good grades and pass a Computer-Based Test. To maintain the scholarship throughout their studies, he said they had to continue excelling academically.
Aside undergraduates, the board disburses N300,000 for Master’s (one-off), N400,000 PhD (yearly), N200,000 for Law School and Maritime Academy (one-off).
Fakolujo said on December 15, the board would celebrate all scholars on the First Class grade during which they would get more monetary reward which the board was packaging in partnership with the private sect.
