112 Students Withdraw From FUT Minna Due To Financial Struggles – Dep VC

…Institution Launches Benevolence Fund To Support Poor Students

Amid the deteriorating state of Nigeria’s economy, a total of 112 students have voluntarily withdrawn from the Federal University of Technology, Minna on financial grounds in 2021 alone, the institution’s management has said.

The University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and chairman, Students Support Committee, Professor Emeka Udensi, disclosed this on Monday during the launch of a students’ benevolence fund as part of efforts to cushion the worsening economic situation of students from low income families.

The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Abdullahi Bala, who formally launched the fund during the 2nd and 3rd Annual Institutional Performance Review Retreat of the university at its main campus in Gidan Kwano, said the provision of the fund became necessary to ameliorate the plight of students whose “lofty aspirations are threatened daily by their financial constraints.

“Let it not be said that the future of a promising student is killed while we all could do something little and little together to help,” he said.

“We have seen a very worrying trend of a large number of students having to defer their sessions, having to drop out as a result of financial difficulties,

“And we feel that as parents we also have to stand up and be counted in making sure that dreams, aspirations and potentials of our youths are not killed as a result of financial difficulties,” he added.

“We believe that as a university, whatever we can do to stop this kind of withdrawal we should be able to do it, and that’s why we are creating the benevolence fund,” said Bala.

Reacting, the president of the institution’s student union, Shuaib Isiaka Yahaya, described the initiative as unprecedented while appreciating the management for prioritizing the welfare of students.

He assured of the continued support of the students’ union in the policy direction of the university.