Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State on Thursday presented N1 million each to160 first class graduates of the state to enable them to be established in their chosen careers.
Addressing the graduates in Awka on Thursday, Obi said the gesture was a way of encouraging hard work among students and youths in the state.
The governor also used the occasion to distribute 55 school buses to 55 secondary schools, saying it was part of the final push in the education sector.
He further inaugurated the distribution of more than 200 transformers to various communities as well as two fire trucks to the state fire service.
Obi assured that his successor, Mr Willie Obiano, would sustain the gesture and called on the people of the state to support the in-coming administration.
Earlier, the state Commissioner for Education, Dr Uju Okeke, commended the governor for the transformation so far witnessed in the education sector.
She said that Obi’s administration had so far distributed about N2.8 billion to the Catholic mission schools and about N2 billion to Anglican mission schools.
Okeke said that the money was released as grants for rehabilitation, renovation or construction of new structures in the schools.
She noted that the administration had distributed more than 420 generating sets, 22, 500 laptops and 1, 400 colour printers.
Okeke said that N2 million was given to each school for provision of laboratory equipment and for library development.
“We are ending strongly with the recruitment of 2,000 secondary school teachers and 3,000 primary school teachers in the state,” the commissioner said.
The Chairman, Post Primary School Service Commission, Mrs Joy Ulasi, urged the first class graduates to utilise the funds donated to them by the governor, describing Obi’s gesture as unprecedented.
Ulasi assured the governor that the school principals would ensure optimal utilisation of the buses in bringing about the desired goal in the education sector.
