LAPO Institute supports 33 Nigerian postgraduates with over N5m research grants in five years

The management of LAPO Institute, on Tuesday said it had awarded the sum of N5.1million grant to a total of 33 Master’s and Doctoral students in the past five years.

Godwin Ehigiamusoe, chairman governing council LAPO Institute, made the disclosure at the 6th annual LAPO institute Conference on Microfinance and Enterprise Development (CMED) with the theme, “Operating Environment and Microfinance Sustainability in Nigeria”, in Benin City. Ehigiamusoe said the money was geared towards cushioning the financial burden associated with completing the beneficiaries’ research.

He said the support grant which is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of the Institute, was designed to impact research, especially in social and management sciences courses in all universities across Nigeria.

While describing the theme as well-timed amid current challenges threatening the sustainability of microfinance banks, he however, identified regulations, policies, loan repayment and cyber security as problems confronting the microfinance sector.

He noted that the award has recorded a significant impact on the quality of research outcomes of beneficiaries.

“The annual Conference on Microfinance and Enterprise Development (CMED) is designed to provide a veritable platform for microfinance practitioners, the academia, researchers, regulators and other stakeholders in the microfinance industry to discuss issues besetting microfinance and enterprise development practices in Africa.

“As our tradition is with all our conferences, a high point of this event is the Thesis Support Grant Award (TSG), a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of LAPO Institute, to promote scholarship and encourage researches,” he said.

He, however, urged stakeholders in the industry, regulators, government, investors and clients to promote synergy and play their respective roles in ensuring the sector is sustained.

Earlier, Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Director of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Nkiru Asiegbu, stressed the need for conducive operating environment to ensure sustainability of the microfinance sector.