LASU student leader says grants are critical to funding education for indigent people

An undergraduate student vying for a department leadership position says grant funding is critical to delivering education for indigent students.

The student, Bakare Adeola Zainab, is a 19-year-old third-year undergraduate at the Lagos State University (LASU) in Ojo.

Zainab, who is a VP of the department, is the sole female contestant in the race for the president of LASU’s philosophy programme.

In an interview, the teenage undergraduate spoke about her ambitions and plans if she emerged a winner in the imminent 2024 election.

Zainab highlighted the critical role of diverse grant funding in affording education to indigent students.

Asked what she would do, Zainab said she would explore innovative funding sources for students who cannot afford to pay their fees.

“One of the major challenges I have observed in my department is students being unable to pay their school fees. I will bring innovative ideas towards raising funds for students who cannot afford to pay their fees,” she said.

“My top priority is academic excellence, career workshops, and innovative grants.”

Zainab spoke of what she described as the “after-school problem” that many students still face.

She explained this to mean the career uncertainty facing young graduates who confront the hard reality of job unavailability.

Zainab said after-school options she be beyond self-employment or going back for a post-graduate degree.

To solve this, she said she looks to approach sponsors who will fund symposia aimed at enlightening the student population.

“It’s possible to run your masters and you are yet to discover yourself. We have lots of people who are done schooling, did their masters and PhD, but are yet to discover who they are,” she said.

“This means there’s little they can do in today’s world. The last academic symposium at the department was one of the biggest symposiums held at LASU. I hosted it as the vice president.

“I wrote sponsorship letters to companies, reached out to alumni, special adviser to the governor on student union affairs, and the commissioner for tertiary education. They all attended the event.

“I believe that as president, I can do better. All these are all about thinking out of the box. Nothing is impossible.”

Nigeria enacted a working student loan legislation in April 2024 to grant interest-free tertiary education funding to indigent people.

The fund opened its loan application portal on May 24, at which time a pilot phase to serve federal tertiary institutions began.

Over 110,000 had applied for the scheme as of mid-July, with more than 160,000 students having registered on the portal.

Over N2.5 billion, the fund revealed, have been disbursed to cater for 20,000+ public tertiary institutions as of this report.

The loan’s coverage amid limited federal funding and its sufficiency in addressing student needs amid rising costs remain to be seen.