The Kwara State Government says it has released N125m to the state-owned tertiary institutions as the subvention for June 2018.
Commissioner for Tertiary Education in the state, Abdullahi Alkinla, disclosed this to journalists on Monday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital in reaction to a protest by students of the College of Education, Ilorin.
He said Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, approved the funds on Wednesday last week and immediately ordered the state’s Finance Ministry to ensure the institutions get the funds before Friday.
Alkinla explained that, unfortunately, the banks could not process the payment of the money until Monday morning, adding that the funds had dropped into the accounts of the institutions.
Students of College of Education in Ilorin protested on Monday over the non-payment of their lecturers’ salaries, a situation which caused the lecturers to boycott their semester examinations – scheduled to start the same day.
Their plan to march to the Kwara State government house was however thwarted by police officers who dispersed them with tear gas.
Alkinla said the protest by the students was unnecessary as the management of their institution confirmed the receipt of its share of the money on Monday morning.
According to him, the state government disburses subvention to the institutions on a quarterly basis but it eventually started monthly disbursements to enable the institutions to meet their monthly salary obligations.
“With the release of subvention for the payment of June salary, the institutions have a one-month outstanding salary to clear, which is for July,” he said.
Alkinla is optimistic that the July subvention to the institutions would be released soon.
