By Mary Emeka
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Scholarship Board has appealed to the FCT Administration to increase funding for its scholarship programme to enable more indigent students across the territory to access quality education.
The appeal was made during a stakeholders’ meeting held in Abuja on Thursday to review preparations for the 2025/2026 scholarship session and strengthen collaboration for a transparent and efficient award process.
Director of the FCT Scholarship Board, Mrs. Hannah Peter David, said the board remains committed to identifying and supporting brilliant but indigent students across the FCT through financial assistance that would enable them pursue their education without undue hardship.
She explained that the meeting was convened to review previous scholarship processes, address identified challenges and develop strategies for a seamless implementation of the new scholarship cycle.
According to her, the board will focus on reviewing application timelines, expanding awareness campaigns to rural communities across the six Area Councils and strengthening collaboration with stakeholders to ensure that only qualified and deserving beneficiaries receive the awards.
Mrs. David disclosed that scholarship forms for the new session would be issued only to fresh applicants, adding that students with unresolved issues from previous exercises would not be eligible until such matters are addressed.
She also highlighted payment challenges experienced during previous scholarship disbursements, revealing that at least 48 successful applicants had their payments returned because of incorrect account details, submission of parents’ bank accounts and the use of fintech platforms such as OPay and Moniepoint, which are not supported by the payment system.
She said the board contacted the affected beneficiaries individually to correct the errors before their payments were successfully processed.
To prevent similar challenges, the director advised prospective applicants to use only commercial bank accounts registered in their names, ensure they possess the required academic qualifications, including five credits with English Language and Mathematics, and submit their applications early.
Mrs. David noted that scholarship funding comes entirely from the FCT Administration’s budget, making it impossible for the board to support every deserving student.
She explained that the current policy allocates 80 per cent of scholarship awards to indigent FCT indigenes and 20 per cent to indigent residents across basic, post-basic, tertiary and foreign education categories.
She appealed for an upward review of the board’s budgetary allocation to expand access to scholarships for more students.
Stakeholders at the meeting backed the appeal, urging the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to approve increased funding to strengthen the scholarship scheme and provide greater educational opportunities for less-privileged students.
The meeting also featured discussions on improving technical and vocational education, with participants calling for greater public sensitisation and the establishment of skills acquisition centres across the six Area Councils.
Representatives of traditional institutions and education stakeholders also commended the FCT Administration’s efforts in promoting education while pledging continued support for the scholarship programme.