OPay Limited, a leading digital payment services provider in Nigeria, has disbursed N126 million to 420 students in the first phase of its N1.2 billion scholarship programme as part of its long term plan to support Nigerian youths and improve access to higher education in the country.
The landmark funding support for the students was announced at the Empowering Futures Conference held in Lagos, where the beneficiaries were drawn from 20 public tertiary institutions nationwide.
Speaking on the initiative, OPay’s Chief Commercial Officer, Elizabeth Wang, said the programme was designed to assist bright but financially challenged students.
She explained: “In this first year, OPay disbursed N126 million to 420 students nationwide, providing each with N300,000 in educational support. We believe in the future and the students are that future.”
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According to her, the scholarship aims to run for 10 years and will cover more beneficiaries each academic year.
Wang clarified that the scholarship awarded to each student would cater for tuition and other educational needs to ease their academic endeavours and that beneficiaries would receive the funding over two academic sessions based on eligibility.
Opay indicated that students who qualified for the programme were selected based on academic performance and financial need.
Specifically, it stated to qualify for the scholarship, applicants must maintain a minimum CGPA of 2.8 on a 4 point scale or 3.5 on a 5 point scale and must be in their second or third year of study in selected public universities and polytechnics across Nigeria.
The company assured that in addition to the scholarship programme, it will continue to invest in educational development and technology driven learning in higher institutions, including plans to support related projects such as the establishment of a cybersecurity laboratory at the University of Calabar to aid digital learning among students.
Vice chancellors and representatives of the beneficiary institutions commended Opay management on the gesture, describing it as a timely intervention for many students, who were finding it difficult to sustain their academic studies.
They expressed optimism that the OPay scholarship will have a positive impact on the academic performance and morale of students and represented a commendable step towards improving the standards in the nation’s educational sector.
