For a Nigerian student, a scholarship can mean more than money. It can mean staying in school when a family is struggling to pay fees. It can mean being able to concentrate on lectures instead of worrying about how the next semester will be funded. For some families, it can be the difference between a young person completing a degree and having to put education on hold.
What started as a long-term commitment to students across 20 tertiary institutions is now taking another step forward. With the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Miva Open University, the OPay N1.2bn 10-year scholarship programme, which sits in the broader OPayScholars Programme, alongside the OPay National Innovation Challenge in partnership with Google and 3MTT, and OPay Futures, now has 25 partner tertiary institutions. But there is more to come.
OPay plans to extend the programme to 16 additional tertiary institutions by the end of 2026, bringing the total number of institutions covered to 41. For thousands of young Nigerians and their families, these numbers are not simply figures. They represent opportunities. Education support in Nigeria is often associated with one-off donations or short-term interventions. OPay’s approach is different. The company has chosen to make a commitment that stretches across a decade.
The ₦1.2 bn 10-year scholarship programme is designed to provide sustained scholarship support to students over 10 years, creating a more reliable form of assistance for young Nigerians pursuing higher education. The recent partnership with Miva Open University further strengthens that commitment. As a technology-driven university, Miva brings a flexible and technology-enabled approach to higher education.
Its inclusion in the OPay ₦1.2 bn 10-year scholarship programme means more students can benefit from scholarship opportunities while pursuing their education through a different learning model. This latest partnership also sends a