Kogi State Government on Thursday flagged off the disbursement of bursary allowance to 20,347 verified Kogi State students in tertiary institutions across the country under the season 2 of his students support programme.
Addressing a mammoth crowd in Government House, Lokoja during the occasion, the Executive Chairman of the Kogi State Scholarship Board, Mr. Afolabi Joseph-Raji, said the Ododo administration revived the bursary scheme which was last paid in 2019 and recommenced it in 2024 with a 150 per cent increment.
Joseph-Raji, said the allowance was increased from N12,000 to N30,000 per student, while medical students who used to receive N18,000 will now get N75,000 each.
According to him , the governor abolished the old practice where students paid N650 for scratch cards to access the portal without guarantee of payment, and directed that application must be free, paperless, online and transparent.
The Chairman further disclosed that in the 2024/2025 session, the Board disbursed N256.4 million to 8,549 undergraduates at N30,000 each and N60.3 million to Law School students at N300,000 each, in addition to other scholarships totaling N261 million.
He said the Board, which had no operational vehicle for campus verification, has now been given a seven-seater utility vehicle to ease mobilisation.
He added that to deepen engagement, the Board introduced the Governor Ododo Campus Quiz Challenge and the Radio Quiz Challenge airing every Saturday at 12 noon on Confluence 94.1 FM, where students win up to N5,000.
Joseph-Raji announced that 20,347 students have been screened and verified for the 2025/2026 bursary, with undergraduates to receive N30,000 each and medical students N75,000 each.
He explained that payment will be in phases, beginning with students in institutions within Kogi State, while students in over 300 institutions outside the state including UniAbuja, ABU Zaria, UNIJOS and BUK will be paid in the second tranche.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Education, Hon. Wemi Jones, commended the leadership of the National Association of Kogi State Students, NAKOSS, for their patience and peaceful conduct during the delay.
He said education has the highest allocation in the state budget at 30 per cent, describing it as an evidence of the governor’s passion for education. He said Governor Ododo belongs to the youth constituency and would have attended personally but was away following the death of a former governor.
The Commissioner credited former Governor Yahaya Bello for establishing CUSTECH Osara and KSU Kabba within four years, noting that with three functional state universities, plus the Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, Nursing, Health Sciences and the Nigeria-Korea Friendship Institute, Kogi is now self-sustaining in tertiary education.
Jones described the leap from 8,000 applicants in Season 1 to over 20,000 verified beneficiaries in Season 2, over 130 per cent increase, as monumental.
He also listed other interventions by the state government including payment of Common Entrance, Basic Six, BECE, WAEC for SS3 students in public schools, and NABTEB for technical college students, as well as free CBT training for SS3 students.
He urged students to take advantage of the Federal Government’s NELFUND loan scheme, observing that only a few students at the event indicated they were benefiting.
President of NAKOSS, Comrade Sunday Adeola Simon, who spoke on behalf of Kogi students thanked Governor Ododo for the intervention, saying it goes beyond financial assistance to show that students’ welfare remains a priority.
Simon said though the application flagged off in September 2025 witnessed some delays with enormous pressure on the student leadership, they chose dialogue and responsible representation and rejected calls to confront government through violence and propaganda.
He affirmed the continuous support of Kogi students for the administration while appealing to the governor to also cap
