The Lagos State Scholarship Board has given students of the state origin in tertiary institutions up till today, Jan. 31 to come for clearance for the 2006 to 2011 scholarships or forfeit them.

The Public Relations Officer, Rotimi Olugbuyi, said in Lagos on Monday that funds had been provided to pay the backlog of scholarships.

Olugbuyi said the board was concerned about the increasing number of students who applied for scholarship but had refused to show up.

The awardees have been collecting the grants in batches but some of them still have some outstanding.

"We have funds to pay the scholarships. We want beneficiaries to come and claim it. Students joke with everything; they do not take things serious.

"Any awardee who fails to come for clearance on or before Jan. 31 may forfeit it," he said.

Olugbuyi requested those given scholarships to come with progress reports from their institutions, passport-size photographs and identity cards for the clearance.

Undergraduates are to be given N200,000 each, post-graduate students N300,000 each and doctoral students N400,000 each.

NAN