Kuje Council disburses N4.7m bursary to students
Kuje area council of FCT spent N4.7 million on payment of bursaries to its students last year.
The Area Council Scholarship Committee chairman, Mr Dorperi Yusuf, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kuje that, the council had also distributed free school uniforms to pupils.
Yusuf said, the gesture was aimed at assisting the indigent students and reduce the sufferings faced by parents.
He said the committee categorised the beneficiaries of the scheme into four, explaining that each benefiting student must be a full time student of a recognised institution.
According to him, the school must be an accredited institution by government before the student would be qualified for the bursary.
The committee chairman added that the disbursement was in two phases, adding that more than 500 students benefited last year.
He said the first category was made up of students of Federal Government Colleges, University and Polytechnics who collected N20,000 each.
He said other category was made up of students in Colleges of Education and those pursuing their Diploma programmes who got N10,000 each.
``The council embarked on the scheme considering the fact that FCT has been regarded as one of the educationally backward states in the country.
``We deem it necessary to encourage all students at various levels of education from the area in order to address the problem," Yusuf stated.
He explained that the committee would this year grant higher amount of money to university students studying medicine, computer and engineering courses.
He called on the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the money by concentrating on their studies, while urging parents to send their wards to school.
He said the council had embarked on the renovation of primary schools and facilities in the area and that teachers' welfare was a priority.
According to him, the council has designed free school uniform for 35,000 primary pupils in the area, saying that 15,000 sets had already been distributed.
He said the council had taken over the payment of the Common Entrance Examination fees of primary six pupils.