The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETTFund) said that it would stop providing international scholarships for Nigerian scholars under the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) program in January 2025.
Abdulmumin Oniyangi, the Fund’s spokeswoman, made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.
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The “excessive cost” of training in foreign universities and the “high rate of absconding of foreign scholars” are the reasons for the suspension, according to Mr. Oniyangi.
According to a TETFund representative, the suspension has been accepted by the agency’s board of trustees.
In addition, he stated that the suspension will take effect on January 1, 2025, excluding scholars who are currently enrolled in the program.
“TETFund scholars who have already enrolled in foreign institutions would continue to draw down on their scholarships till the end of their programmes,” he said.
“It is expected that the suspension will conserve and reduce the pressure on foreign exchange rate, boost investment and local capacity in Nigerian tertiary educational institutions and significantly increase the number of beneficiaries of the intervention.”
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#1. Increasing cost
According to a PREMIUM TIMES article from last year, Nigerian scholars from Malaysia, India, and Kenya applied to the TETFund for bailout money and higher allowances after inflation and the naira’s floating had an impact on their maintenance.
At the time, Mr. Oniyangi informed PREMIUM TIMES that the organization was gathering suggestions in order to come up with a solution for the problem.
In the meantime, the TETFund also attributed the problems brought on by the foreign exchange crisis to the parent institutions’ failure to adhere to the Fund’s rules. According to the Fund, it has changed how it operates since 2019 to make sure that its scholars are not impacted by the volatile foreign exchange.
In order to relieve scholars and their parent institutions of the burden of foreign exchange, the agency clarified that it pays the scholars’ tuition costs directly to the overseas institutions.
According to the Fund, it also pays the scholars’ full living expenses to their parent institutions and instructs them to hold the money in a domiciliary account to prevent any fluctuations brought on by an exchange rate shift.
However, according to TETFund, some institutions maintain the funds in local currency instead of relocating them to the domiciliary account, which puts the scholars in a precarious situation.
“It is pertinent to state that despite the requirement of operating domiciliary accounts for living expenses of foreign scholars, some beneficiary institutions still kept such funds in local currency. Consequently, due to non-compliance to this requirement, scholars are often caught up by the volatility of foreign exchange arising from the practice of keeping their stipends in local currency,” the agency had said.
#2. Transnational education
According to TETFund, it is working with the National Universities Commission (NUC) to step up efforts to put the Trans-national Education Guidelines into effect, which were “recently approved by President Bola Tinubu.”
“Under the scheme, top-ranking institutions from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Malaysia, Brazil, etc. will be encouraged to mount programmes in partnership with Nigerian institutions to offer the same standard and quality of courses that are obtainable in their home institutions,” he said.
“Beneficiary institutions of TETFund have been advised to prioritize their training needs for implementation in Nigerian institutions and ensure strict compliance.”
In order to “guide foreign investment and partnerships between foreign universities and their Nigerian counterparts,” the NUC has been implementing guidelines for transnational education since 2022.
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