AAUA alumni inaugurates education trust fund for indigent students

The Alumni Association of Adekunle Ajasin University (AAUA), Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, has inaugurated an education trust fund scheme to provide scholarship support for the university’s less-privileged students.

The president of the association, Mr Oyekunle Adetoba, inaugurated the scheme at the convention of the association held in Nelson Mandela hall of the university on Friday.

According to him, the scheme will ensure that beneficiaries of the programme achieve their academic, professional and entrepreneurial aspirations.

Adetoba noted that the scheme became imperative to cushion the effects of the increase in school fees on students, particularly the indigent ones.

“Going by the available information, over 40 per cent of the students here have not been registered for a number of semesters due to their inability to pay school fees.

“Some are on the verge of dropping out of school, others have already dropped out of the university for the same reason of inability to pay.

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“Therefore, at the meeting of the alumni council, we took a decision that an education trust fund programme should be floated, after we received some requests for payment of school fees by students.

“These appeals include a young man, who had a First Class in the university and was almost dropping out of the university’s Law School, all of which the association had funded,” he said.

“Today, three undergraduate students will benefit from our ETF and we will continue to increase this modest effort of ours annually,” he said.

The president added that efforts were being made to complete the on-going construction of students’ hostel to bring in more students to campus from the over 90 per cent, who live off the campus.

Adetoba pleaded for support for the scheme and hostel projects from well-meaning Nigerians, including philanthropists, organisations, associations, and other stakeholders.

“I invite you to be part of this impact-making initiative so that we can educate these children together,” he said.

The three beneficiaries of the scheme are: Obaloluwa Tadese Faforiji, 200-Level History and International Studies; Dorcas Taiwo Ojo, 200-Level Public Administration; and Roland Oluwasegun Boyede, 300-Level Mass Communication.

The 2019 convention also featured a lecture on, “Creative Economy: Contents and Digital Disruption”, delivered by Mr Sola Fajobi.

(NAN)