Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has approved fresh financial support packages for final-year undergraduates and Nigerian Law School students of Kwara origin, in a move aimed at easing their academic and financial burdens.

The Senior Assistant to the Governor on Students’ Affairs, Comrade Wasiu Onidugbe, disclosed this to Arewa PUNCH on Wednesday, describing the initiative as a reflection of the administration’s prioritisation of students’ welfare.

According to him, final-year students across tertiary institutions in the country will receive ₦20,000 each as bursary, while Kwara indigenes in the Nigerian Law School will get ₦200,000 each as scholarship across the seven campuses.

This marks the second 100 per cent increment in three years, with the undergraduate bursary rising from ₦5,000 to ₦20,000, and the Law School scholarship moving from ₦50,000 to ₦200,000. “For the first time, students of private tertiary institutions will also benefit from the bursary, which is unprecedented in Kwara State,” Onidugbe noted.

He added that the government had digitised the bursary application process for transparency, with a dedicated online portal going live on Thursday, September 4, 2025. “In the past, bursaries were paid in cash, but since 2019, students have been registering online. This ensures that only deserving students receive their support directly,” he explained.

Beyond bursaries, the governor’s aide said the administration was addressing broader education challenges, including hostel accommodation, lecture theatres, and library upgrades. He stressed that Kwara State University remained one of the most affordable in Nigeria, with no increase in school fees in the last two years, while all state-owned institutions had enjoyed uninterrupted academic calendars since 2019.

Onidugbe said the governor raised the Law School support to motivate professional students, adding: “Many of them were not even expecting this increase, but it shows how much value the administration places on their success.”

He hinted at more support initiatives in the pipeline, including postgraduate research grants and entrepreneurship empowerment programmes, affirming that both indigenes and non-indigenes had benefitted from Kwara’s student-focused interventions.