Omega Power Ministries (OPM), under its Foreign Undergraduate Scholarship programme, has sent 17 children of policemen who died on duty to the ESM University, Cotonou, Republic of Benin to acquire their first degrees.
General overseer of OPM Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere addressed the students before their departure from Port Harcourt to Benin Republic on Thursday.
He said the beneficiaries are both Christians and Muslims.
“The 17 beneficiaries are children of policemen who sacrificed their lives while on duty serving this great country, Nigeria.
“We felt that children of our fallen heroes deserved to be catered for and included in our foreign scholarship programme which over 4,000 Nigerians have so far benefitted.
“The foreign scholarship will take care of the tuition and accommodation of the students from their first year to their graduation,” he said.
Chinyere said the students would also be fed one meal per day from the OPM-run free restaurant inside the university campus.
“The free restaurant which is for only students on OPM scholarships will feed the students one meal daily.
“Parents and guardians of the students are expected to cater for their other meals as well as cater for their clothing, pocket money and other needs.
“We are the first in the world to establish a free restaurant for students on campus. The free restaurant is added to the scholarship but not part of the scholarship,” he said.
The general overseer said the 17 beneficiaries were selected from the 17 zones of the police commands across the country.
Chinyere announced plans by the church to extend the scholarship to children of deceased service personnel in the Nigeria Army, Navy, Air Force among others.
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He clarified that OPM shut down the foreign scholarship programme months ago due to the depreciating value of the naira against some foreign currencies.
“But we decided to restart the programme because we went into partnership with an individual, who is not a member of OPM, but who is happy with what we are doing.
“So, OPM is paying half of the tuition while this good-spirited individual covers the remaining half – which is the reason we restarted the scholarship programme.
“We went into partnership because at the time we began this scholarship, the naira exchange was not so bad, but now naira exchanges for about N1,200 to one USD,” he said.
Chinyere said the value of the naira has also not fared better against CFA Franc (used in Benin) which now exchanges above N1,000 at black market rate.
He called for more partnerships with individuals and companies to enable the church to award scholarships to more underprivileged Nigerians.
