By Gabriel Dike
As part of it corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the country, the management of microfinance institution, Grooming Centre (GC), is set to award N20 million grant to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
The centre has also concluded plans to award scholarship to 1,000 secondary school students whose parents are clients to Grooming Centre.
Addressing newsmen on the two forthcoming events, the Head, Special Project Officer Grooming Centre, Mr. Chikezie Egulefu, said the Grooming university grant would be awarded to undergraduate and postgraduate students with projects in specific areas that alleviate poverty and create wealth.
Egulefu said the annual GC grant started in 2019 and continued till date, stating, “it is solely sponsored by Grooming Centre a leading microfinance institution in Nigeria.
“Grooming Center has in each of the series planned for 150 students of both undergraduates and postgraduates. The scheme is managed by the Centre for Research in Enterprise and Action in Management (CREM).’’
According to him, the GC university grant for 2022 would be awarded to 100 undergraduates at N100,000 each and 50 postgraduates at N200,000 each, adding, beneficiaries will receive a total of N20 million this year.’
“The aim of the scheme, the fourth in the series is to catalyze research and knowledge development. The 2022 GC university grant will be awarded to 100 undergraduate and 50 postgraduate students who are presently carrying out their research studies in the selected areas, “he explained. On the criteria, Egulefu said the applicant must be either a student at the undergraduate or postgraduate level in a Nigerian tertiary institutions whose research study must cover these specified areas such as financial inclusion, microfinance, rural development, social enterprise, MSMEs, technological development, women in development or any other research that is aimed at lifting people out of poverty.
Other criteria is that the research study must be relevant to the Nigerian context, practical, innovative and be capable of promoting any of the above areas of interest, in the country, stressing, “the research must show a high level of originality, imaginative thought and be data inclusive.
“The applicant must be a student at an NUC/ NBTE approved Nigerian university or polytechnic. The applicant must submit a written recommendation from his/her HoD/project supervisor. There are no barriers to age, gender, religion or ethnicity to the GC university grant scheme.
“The applicant must submit a research concept of between 10-15 pages, which will include an introduction, literature review, research methodology including references and a page of candidate’s personal profile. The candidate will also submit a final soft copy of the research project on completion of the study, “ Egulefu said.
Chief operating officer of CREM, Mr. Clifford Onyeike, said client children, who have repaid their loan can apply for education grant for their kids in secondary school.
Onyeike revealed that for the 2022 secondary school scholarship, the centre is planning to give N50, 000 each to 1,000 pupils every year for three years.
He explained that the centre started with the secondary school grant in 2017 basically for women who repaid their loan and later the university grant was introduced for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Onyeike said CREM was an expert firm in certain areas such as research, learning development, stating, “we have training for firms and e-learning centre, sporting facilities and we also organize financial literacy training.’’
He further explained that the university grants and scholarship is part of Grooming Centre corporate social responsibility to support government in education. He said students could access the form online; www.groominggrant.org and that entry would close on September 30.
For the secondary school, the centre in 2017 gave 78 pupils scholarship, 91 in 2018, 192 in 2019, 500 in 2020, 500 in 2021 and 1,000 to be awarded in 2022.
The centre gave university grant in 2019 to 100 undergraduates who received N75, 000 while 50 postgraduates got N100, 000, in 2020, the grant was increased and undergraduates were given N100, 000, PG students got N200, 000 and in 2021, 41 students received N100, 000 each while 68 postgraduates got N200, 000 each.