The Ebonyi State Government has announced a reduction in tuition fees in the Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki.
The governor, Mr. Dave Umahi approved N20,000 and N10,000 reduction of fees for indigenes and non-indigenes, respectively.
A statement signed by the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Dr. Kenneth Ugbala and issued on Monday, said the review, was with immediate effect.
Ugbala noted that the reduction was aimed at mitigating the hardship caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, which affected global and local economies.
He further stated that government was aware of the impact of the pandemic on the world economies “of which Ebonyi was highly affected.
The statement read further: “We know that the finances of our people are highly affected, which will in effect, affect the education of our children.
“To lessen the burden on parents, especially in catering for the students of EBSU and encourage more of our students to go to university, the governor has approved reduction in school fees for the students.
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“The reduction is effective from the 2020/2021 academic session and is from Year one to the Fifth year.
“All non-indigenes will have their tuition fee reduced by N10,000, while all indegenes in the university will have their fees slashed by N20,000.
“This amount will be aggregated and paid directly to EBSU’s management sometime in 2021.”
The SSG disclosed that government had earlier released all monthly subventions owed to the university and that additional N200 million salary intervention fund, totalling N500 million, was also released to assist in the payment of staff salaries.
He pointed out though that the sacrifice would affect some other government programmes, like infrastructure development and provision of medical services, “which have become opportunity cost.”
Meanwhile, Ugbala called on the youth in the state to start registering for the 200 youths per Local Government Area to benefit from the #EndSARS Empowerment Fund to be launched this November.
