The Bayo and Bunmi Babalola Foundation (BBBF) has committed N30milion to scholarship awards to 1013 students from Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State over the last five years,according to the organization’s Co-ordinating Committee chairman, Pastor Oladele Ajiboye.

Speaking at the fifth annual scholarship award programme in Omu-Aran, headquarters of the local Government area,Pastor Ajiboye said the beneficiaries are secondary and tertiary institution students from the local government area.

Six million naira was voted for the scheme this year following what the chairman called the increasing number of applicants.

Pastor Ajiboye commended the President of BBBF, Engr. Sunday Adebayo Babalola and his wife, Bunmi , for their initiative and resolve to sustain the scholarship scheme in spite of daunting national economic challenges.

Engr. Babalola, who is a retired Deputy Director in the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the presiding Pastor at the City of Light Church, Surulere, Lagos, recalled the recent statement of Education Minister Adamu Adamu that more than 16 million school age children were out of school in the country.

The minister had said that of the 16million out-of-primary-school children were 10 million while children out-of-secondary-school were six million.

Babalola blamed the increasing number of out-of-school children in the country on poor funding of education by the states and federal governments.