Femi Mustapha
The Kaduna State Government has created a special scholarship and Bursary for people living with disability(PWDs) residing in the state.
The Executive Secretary, ES of Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board, Malam Hassan Rilwan disclosed this when members of the Open Government Partnership(OPG), Technical Working Group(TWG) on Social Protection paid him a familiarisation visit at his office.
According to him, ten students living with disability were recently granted the special scholarship and two of them have already resumed at Coventry University, United Kingdom and University of Wallongong in Dubai.
“Governor El-Rufai also presented an automated wheelchair to Aminu Musa, one of the beneficiaries who intends ‘’to be, a cyber security expert so as to be able to fight fraudsters. ‘’ he said
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The ES also recalled that, ‘’the state government paid N236.8 million in local Bursaries to students in 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and has approved a further N524.1 million in 2021 schools have reopened.’’
Hassan noted that the bursary ‘’ is a social intervention, a palliative that lifts a major burden off the shoulders of the parents,’’ adding that ‘’ the state is investing over N800 million on the 2020/2021 Merit and Disability Based students for the September Cycle alone.’’
He explained that in order to check anybody that come forward and say, he is poor or needy, the board introduced a simple scientific approach, saying if anyone wants to apply under the banner of the needy, he or she has to go through the checks.
“If you are too big to be checked, then this type of scholarship is not meant for you. First, you will provide us with your Tax Identification Number (TIN) and that of your parents’ as well as your Bank Verification Number (BVN) and that of your parents’
“The essence is that we want to ascertain your access to funds, your earning and spending capability. So, if you are below a threshold, you are going to earn some marks of +10. If you are above the threshold, you are going to get -15 marks.
“That helps us to make some economic re-balancing, to make sure that the children of the needy, that may not have had access to qualitative education, will be discounted for by giving them that extra marks, on account of being below that threshold;
“While children of those who have the economic wherewithal, who may have gone to better schools, will have to score higher to remain in that threshold.
“But for students, we cannot pay outside the Bank. And if they don’t have a TIN, every Local Government has a tax office.
“They can go there and do a self-assessment. So, even if you are a peasant farmer and you do a self-assessment of just N100, you will get a tax certificate. And that certificate validates the need for your ward to qualify under the need-based bouquet. ” He said.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Philip Yatai, Citizens’ Co-Chair of the TWG, explained that the objective of the visit was to create familiarity between the Board and civil society organisations working on the social protection space.
Yatai who was represented by the Secretary of TWG Simeon Olatunde added that the visit was also to strengthen the synergy between the Civil Society Organisations and implementing Board social protection programmes.
“We are here to also receive updates on the activities of the Board to enable the CSOs to effectively track the implementation of the scholarship and Bursary disbursement to the needy and vulnerable.
“According to him the creation of
bursary for people living with a disability is one of the high impact social protection programmes that enable the poor and vulnerable to access education without financial barriers
