By Emmanuel Adeyemi Lokoja

Senator representing the Kogi West Senate District, Smart Adeyemi, distributed a 20 million yen scholarship to students in his constituency to enable them to continue their education.

To this end, no less than 350 scholarship recipients in the federal constituency of Lokoja / Kogi on Thursday received an automated teller machine (ATM) by the management of Polaris Bank Plc to access N20m funds.

In his speech at the ceremony, Adeyemi, former president of the Union of Journalists of Nigeria, said the annual scholarship was part of his own contribution to support students at higher education institutions in the 7 local government areas of his Senate District who are bright but have financial challenges to pursue their graduate studies.

He said he believed the scholarship program would not only promote quality education among the youth of the Senate district, but also have long-term positive effects on the economy of the state and Nigeria in general.

“We believe that all our bright young people facing financial challenges should have an equal opportunity in helping them to achieve their studies,” he said.

He explained that all beneficiaries, regardless of study track and school, were selected by a non-political and independent scholarship advisory board for the sake of transparency and fairness.

“It was the members of the board of directors who checked the background and selected all the candidates up to 4,800 based on the criteria defined for that purpose and ultimately selected 2,500 successful candidates from this year’s number.” “

He, however, urged all grantees to remain focused and determined to continue their education, saying that they would only be able to enjoy the scholarships afterward if they maintained good grades of at least lower second class or its equivalent until. ‘upon graduation.

The lawmaker who hinted that the scholarship program was not just for Lokoja and Kogi LGA said it covered the seven local government areas of the Senate district.

“We only report that of the federal constituency of Lokoja / Kogi today, while other constituencies will follow.

In his remarks, the president of the Lokoja local government area, Muhammed Dan’asabe Muhammed, praised the senator’s efforts, saying the impacts would be enormous and transcend the direct beneficiaries and their families.

According to the president, a good education and capacity building are the best investments to give to young people everywhere, adding that he commends Senator Adeyemi for doing so much to advance the education activities of destitute youth in the country. senatorial district.

Some of the beneficiaries, who spoke to reporters on the sidelines, expressed their joy at the gesture, saying that the 50,000 N offered to each student meant a lot of money to them and that they would certainly go a long way in their academic pursuits. .

However, they called on politicians and the wealthy in the constituency to provide financial assistance to children from poor families to enable them to graduate from higher education.