By Shuaibu Usman
Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has announced an increase in the bursary allowance for students of Nasarawa origin studying at various tertiary institutions in the country by fifty percent.
Governor Sule said the number of beneficiaries for the current disbursement has also been reviewed upward to over ten thousand students, noting that in the 2021-2022 disbursement over eight thousand students benefited from the scheme.
He stated this during the flag-off ceremony of the 2022-2023 bursary allowance disbursement at the Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic, Lafia, Friday.
He disclosed that due to the wobbling economic situation across the world, his administration has increased the amounts paid as bursary to all indigenous students by fifty percent, insisting that since assumption of office, the Sule-led government raised the budgetary allocation of the education sector ahead of all other critical sectors of the economy.
The Governor represented by the Secretary to the Government of the State, Muhammad Ubandoma Aliyu, added that students from the state were also sponsored to study within and outside the country in a bid to make them great achievers of their educational pursuits, charging the students to use the bursary for the purpose meant for.
He called for probity to also ensure prevention of cybercrime in the bursary disbursement, commending the efforts of the Executive Secretary of the Nasarawa State Scholarship Board, Sa’adatu Yahya, for working closely with the students despite being a “fragile” terrain.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Education, John Mamman, extolled Governor Sule for prioritizing the education sector since his assumption of office in 2019.
Mamman appealed to students to drive up for human capital development to invest back to the state, tasking them to study wide and deep.
Also speaking, Acting Rector of the Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic Lafia, Dr. Nurudeen Mu’azu Maifata who spoke on behalf of the heads of tertiary institutions in the state, said the bursary will bring succor not only to students but to many tertiary institutions in the country to meet up with their essential daily needs for academic excellence.
Dr. Maifata pledged that the tertiary institutions will work relentlessly to equip the students with skills to achieve their educational goals.
In a welcome address, Executive Secretary of the Nasarawa State Scholarship Board, Sa’adatu Yahya, hailed Governor Sule for sustaining the disbursement of bursary allowances, saying it will go a long way in cushioning the effects of the present economic situation in the country.
She expressed dismay over the attitudes of students’ impersonation for scholarship, stating that the Board has adopted another approach to the disbursement which will curtail the spate of cybercrime and fraud in the system.
National President, Nasarawa State Students Association, Husseini Abubakar, in a vote of thanks, reiterated the students union’s unflinching commitment to supporting the present government in the state, assuring Governor Sule of the students’ readiness to use the bursary for the purpose intended.
Nasarawa Newsline reports that with the announcement of the increase in the bursary and the number of beneficiaries, the state government will be expending over three hundred million Naira.