Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati awards students Scholarship Fund at the County Head Office, January 11, 2018. [Photo|Governor's Press Service Bungoma]Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati on Thursday unveiled the Bungoma County Scholarship Fund at the County Head Office.The ceremony saw 420 needy students admitted to National, County and extra County schools after being awarded cheques.The scholarship covers full tuition, Sh50,000 worth of shopping and transport to school for the students.The County Scholarship Fund is different from the Bursary Fund whose budget has been increased from the previous year's Sh180 million to Sh400 million this financial year. Under the Fund, 1,000 needy students from each ward or 40,000 across the County will each get a minimum of Sh10,000 towards their fees.For students in day schools, the Bursary Fund will pay up to Sh5,000 towards lunch in school.The increase in allocation is as a direct result of cutting back on seminars, entertainment and travel budgets.Speaking during the occasion where he handed over cheques to beneficiaries at the County Headquarters in Bungoma, the governor pledged to double the Bursary Fund in subsequent years and seek the partnership of national and global stakeholders to boost the kitty.Wangamati said plans to initiate an 'airlift scholarship' programme through which the County's top students at Form 4 will attend Ivy League universities in the world including MIT, Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, were in place."As it were, economists who control our big government and private institutions in Kenya are alumni of some of these universities," Governor Wangamati said on Thursday."We want our own sons and daughters to join that league of top flight resource persons," he said.He disclosed that the vetting for applicants of the County Bursary Fund was still ongoing and that Already, Sh180 million of the Sh400 million was ready for disbursement to respective host schools. The remaining Sh220 million is awaiting clearance by the County Assembly.

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