Enugu govt. awards scholarships to physically challenged undergraduates

Driven by its commitment to the people’s welfare and vision to help parents augment the cost of educating their children, the Enugu State government has awarded scholarships to 300 undergraduates of the state for the 2017/2018 academic session at a total sum of N30,000,000.

Briefing journalists on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting held at the Government House, Enugu, the commissioner for information, Dr. Godwin Udeuhele, said beneficiaries of the scholarships which commences this September were drawn from the state’s three senatorial zones.

“The cut-off marks for this laudable exercise were carefully made to ensure that the three senatorial zones of the state were equitably represented”, he said, noting that each beneficiary is entitled to N100,000 and that all physically-challenged undergraduates of the state who applied for the scheme were selected irrespective of their
cut-off marks.

Explaining further, the state’s commissioner for education, Prof. Uche Eze, said the initiative was conceived by the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi administration to give every indigene of Enugu State a sense of belonging irrespective of social status or political leaning.

“If the cut-off mark is strictly adhered to, you will see that a particular senatorial zone will be denied the opportunity since everybody is not equally gifted intellectually. So the cut-off mark varies to ensure that equal opportunity was given to beneficiaries of the three senatorial zones.”

The council, the commissioner said, approved the employment of 10 additional resident doctors for ESUT Teaching Hospital Parklane. Dr. Udeuhele explained that although an earlier approval and recruitment of resident doctors had been made, there was need to employ more doctors given the increasing number of patients attending the hospital on daily basis.

Also approved was the total sum of N57,325,443 for the purchase of utility vehicles to be equipped with basic and technical rescue requirement for the Enugu State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), the coordinating agency for all emergencies and disasters in collaboration with NEMA, FRSC, Civil Defence, among others.

Udeuhele informed journalists that the council equally approved the commencement of tree-planting exercise to be undertaken by members of the Enugu Diaspora Organization (EDO). This project according to him would complement the city beautification efforts of the Enugu State government.

He said that the flag-off of the first phase will start with the planting of about 1000 neem and eucalyptus tree seedlings at Airport Flyover to Airport and New Market Flyover to New Market junction, all in the metropolis.