BY JUMAI NWACHUKWU
THE Executive Secretary, Delta State Bursary and Scholarship Board, Dr Godfrey Enitan has disclosed how the Board completely eliminated leakages and prevented non-Deltans from accessing the bursary and scholarship, meant for indigenes of the State.
Dr Enitan made the disclosure in an exclusive interview with The Pointer, in Asaba, the state capital.
He spoke of the challenges facing the board, especially in the area of non-indigenes wanting to access the bursary/scholarship, but was quick to add that, ‘’The challenge has always been there”.
To further put this in check, he said, the board has had to introduce ICT solutions.
With this, he said, “Our registrations and capture of applicants are done online. However, we have several verification processes, one of which is the National Identification Number (NIN) verification”.
The NIN verification, Dr Enitan said, clearly states where every applicant is from, “so we have a consultant, who helps us to undertake the NIN verification,’’ he added.
He further explained that the use of the National Identification Number (NIN) was one of the tools used to foil the challenge as it has the capacity to reel out applicants’ data from the national database and verify their real identities.
Going down to specifics, Dr Enitan disclosed that “those from neighbouring States always apply for our bursary. The tendency is that, when you see their names, naturally you may be tempted to think that they are Deltans because of the similarity in names.
“However, with the NIN verification, we are able to know those who are Deltans”, he said.
Dr Enitan disclosed that one of the gains of the verification process is that it has stopped the issue of double payment or non-payment of the awards to applicants.
“Due to the stringent verification process in place, it’s difficult for a student to get paid twice or not at all, because after all the verification exercises, at the point of payment, we ask you to send your bank account details, and your account number, must tally with your name and the name in your NIN and also your Bank Verification Number (BVN). So all the names must tally. It is no longer business as usual for students who are trying to beat the system,” he added.
