BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALAIKI
IN a bid to boost literacy level in Ebonyi State and cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on parents, Governor David Umahi has announced a reduction in the tuition fees payable by students of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki.
According to him, the reduction is to empower parents to pay the school fees and prevent students from dropping out of school.
Secretary to the State Government, Kenneth Ugbala, disclosed this in a statement in Abakaliki, the state capital.
“Ebonyi State Government is aware of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the world economies of which Ebonyi State is highly affected. We know that the finances of our people are highly affected which will, in effect, affect the education of our children,” he said.
Ugbala said to ease the burden on parents and encourage more students to go to the university, the Governor had, with effect from the 2020/2021 academic session, reduced the school fees of Ebonyi State University from Year 1 to the fifth year.
“Fees of all non-indigenes of Ebonyi State University are reduced by Ten thousand Naira (N10,000.00) per student. Fees of all indigenes of Ebonyi State in Ebonyi State University are reduced by Twenty Thousand Naira (N20,000.00) per student,” he said.
Ugbala said the amount would be aggregated and paid directly to Ebonyi State University management sometime in 2021.
He further noted that the state government had last week released all monthly subventions owed to Ebonyi State University, including an additional Two Hundred Million Naira (N200, 000,000.00) Salary intervention fund.
It said the total money released to the university management to assist it in offsetting staff salary was over N500million.
“This sacrifice will be affecting some other government programmes like infrastructure development and provision of medical services in the state as they have become opportunity costs. We request our young ones to start the process of registering themselves, 200 per LGA, to benefit from the #EndSARS Empowerment Fund, which will be launched this November 2020,” the SSG advised.
