Minister Sillah was speaking on behalf of the higher education ministry during the maiden edition of the Inter-Ministerial press confab held at the GRTS building on Friday.
The inter-ministerial press confab, which was coordinated by the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure through the office of the government spokesperson, is part of broader activities to articulate the programmes and activities of the government of The Gambia for citizens to make informed choices.
Information minister further stated that a total of 836 Gambian students in different parts of the world benefited from this package with a US$300 one-off payment, saying this was part of government’s initial response to support non-government funded students abroad.
“Currently the Ministry of Higher Education is pursuing additional funds to support the remaining set of students who are yet to receive help in the first phase. Similarly, the Higher Education Ministry was able to fast-track the annual top-up stipend for the academic year 2019-2020 amounting to over D16 million for 321 students equivalent to US$317, 680.00.”
He maintained that these students are the ones who had gone through the Ministry of Higher Education through bilateral cooperation and are not supposed to benefit from the COVID 19 support. These, he added, are students in Sudan, India, Tunisia, Morocco and Indonesia.
