The Federal Government yesterday August 21st started paying the allowance of scholarship students in Russia three days after it was reported that the 322 Nigerian students currently on Bilateral Educational Agreement scholarship in Russia hadn't been paid for about 8 months.
One of the students, Moyosore Ojuri, a Metallurgical Engineering student who spoke with Punch said herself and her colleagues have started receiving credit alerts of $4,450 in their respective bank accounts. She said $4000 is for her January to August allowance; $200 for annual medicals & health insurance, and $250 covers her annual protective clothing.
"Before now, the Federal Government owed us from January to August. But now they have paid us everything. I can pay my accumulated debts and I am sure that I won't be sent packing from the hostel over unpaid accommodation fees," she said.
President of the Senate Committee, Association of Nigerian Scholarship Students in Russia and a post-graduate student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volgograd State Technical University, Russia, Akinola Akindamola, thanked the federal government for the prompt response and hopes that by today Friday August 22nd, all of them would have received their allowances
"The payment of the money is in process and I am confident that by the end of today, we would all have been paid. The least problem we want now is to be financially handicapped. We appreciate the Federal Government for their prompt response." he said
The students had resorted to begging and engaging in menial jobs in Russia after FG failed to send them their allowance, putting them at risk of being deported.
