Ogun To Pay N3.5bn To 150,000 Indigent Students

The Ogun State Government on Sunday said, no fewer than 150,000 indigent students from public primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions will benefit from the N3.5 billion ‘Educash transfer’ programme.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Abayomi Arigbabu, who stated this shortly after monitoring the cash transfer to parents of indigent students in public primary and secondary schools in the Remo division of the state, promised that no one would be left out.

He said: “At the end of the day, the intention is to pay almost 50,000 tertiary students. We have captured their data; we have just a little bit less than 50,000. That is over N2.5 billion for the tertiary level.

“At the primary and secondary school level, we are going to eventually pay 100,000 pupils, that is N1 billion. 100,000 indigent students are targeted so that their parents will get N10,000 each. As of today, we have paid 20,000 students through their parents.

“At the tertiary level, as we speak, we have paid over 20,000 students, N50,000 each,” he said.

The Commissioner also said that monitoring the transfer was just a symbolic exercise as the state can boost of over 2,000 primary and secondary schools, even as he assured parents who are yet to receive the money to remain calm as it would soon be their turn.

“I want to assure parents who haven’t gotten their own that it is coming, because, we are paying in batches. Apart from that, don’t forget, there can be issues of network.

“If anybody for any reason didn’t get it, let us know through the principal, and we will look into it because nobody is going to be given cash. It will still have to be transferred to their accounts,” he said.

In her remarks, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mrs. Ronke Soyombo admonished parents not to use the money for their own personal needs but to ensure that they prioritized the future of their children.

Mrs. Oyefeso Blessing and Mrs. Oluwayemi Osolukoya, parents to indigent students at Methodist Comprehensive College, Sagamu, commended the governor for putting the interest of their children at heart, even as they assured that the money would be used for the purpose it was meant for.