The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has awarded doctoral scholarships to 12 Nigerian academics to study in France.
The academics were drawn from eight public tertiary institutions across the country.
The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, disclosed this at a pre-departure briefing for the scholars in Abuja on Monday.
He said the scholarship falls under the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff Intervention (TSAS).
He added that the scholarship is the implementation of an April 2023 agreement between TETFund and Campus France. Campus France is a French governmental organisation in charge of the promotion of French Higher Education.
“France and Nigeria have excellent bilateral relations. We have so many commonalities. We as a country are surrounded by French-speaking countries. We have areas of cysteine agreements, bilateral agreements in various fields to the cultural exchanges in education, in defence, amongst others,” Mr Echono said.
He added that TETFund has trained close to 40,000 Nigerian academics in postgraduate studies, locally and internationally. He added that there are over 1,000 Nigerian students currently studying in Malaysia.
“We are looking forward to expanding the numbers in coming years and I believe it is something we can achieve. In addition, we expect all the scholars to be good ambassadors of this country as they have been chosen to fulfil a specific mission. Campus-France has been a wonderful partner as they will accept the scholars as partners when they get there,” he said.
Campus France’s Nigeria manager speaks
In her presentation, Campus France’s Nigeria Manager, Moras Laura, said the management is ready to welcome and accept the scholars, adding that the presentation has been prepared for them to be acquainted with the dos and don’ts of the country.
“The presentation is created into seven parts to prepare you towards your departure and arrival in France. The preparation of documents and revalidating of your visa is very important and we will advise the scholars to be careful with all your belongings on arrival at the airport. We look forward to welcoming you,” she said.
Beneficiaries
The scholars are Balogun Peter and Akeem Temitope from Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH); Jafar Usman, Federal University Gusau (FUGUS); Abel Oroke, Ebonyi State College of Education (EBSCOEI); Adesanmi Adegoke and Francis Maji from the University of Jos (UNIJOS);
Others are Fati Salami, Federal University of Lokoja; Esimone Jennifer and Kanu Chidiebere from Nnamdi Azikiwe University; Samuel Faluyi, Ekiti State University (EKSU); Musbau Idris, Federal and Ishaq Shehu, Federal University of Dutsinma (FUDMA), Katsina.
Improved scholars’ welfare
Mr Echono said recently that the agency has also moved to resolve problems arising from the increase in exchange rates, saying the agency has made provisions to address the shortfall.
Last year, Scholars under TSAS in Malaysia wrote the Fund requesting bailout funds due to the rising cost of living and the fluctuating exchange rate, which they claim had affected their upkeep.
TETFund recently announced the disbursement of N683 billion to Nigerian tertiary institutions, a record amount that is twice the N320 billion disbursed to the institutions last year.
According to TETFund, each university gets N1.9; N1.1 billion for Polytechnics and N1.3 billion for Colleges of Education.
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