TETFund suspends foreign scholarship for Nigerian academics, gives reasons

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETTFund) said it would from January 2025 halt its foreign scholarship funding for Nigerian academics under the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) scheme.

The Fund disclosed the decision on Thursday in a statement by its spokesperson, Abdulmumin Oniyangi.

Mr Oniyangi noted that the suspension is in response to the “excessive cost” of training in foreign institutions as well as the “high rate of abscondment of foreign scholars”.

The TETFund spokesperson said the board of trustees of the agency has approved the suspension.

He added that the suspension is effective from 1 January 2025 with the exception of scholars already in the programme.

“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.”

Increasing cost

PREMIUM TIMES reported last year that Nigerian scholars from Malaysia, India and Kenya wrote TETFund, seeking bailout funds and increased allowances after inflation and the floating of the naira affected their upkeep.

Mr Oniyangi told PREMIUM TIMES at the time that the agency was harvesting recommendations to devise a solution to the challenge.

Meanwhile, TETFund had also blamed the issues arising from the foreign exchange crisis on the failure of the parent institutions’ refusal to follow the guidelines laid down by the Fund. The Fund said it had modified its mode of operation since 2019 to ensure that the fluctuating foreign exchange doesn’t affect its scholars.

The agency explained that it pays the tuition fees of the scholars directly to the foreign institutions so scholars and their parent institutions do not worry about the foreign exchange.

The Fund said it also disburses the complete living expenses of the scholars to their parent institutions and directs the institutions to keep the funds in a domiciliary account to avoid the fluctuations that may arise as a result of a change in exchange rate.

However, some institutions fail to domicile the fund in the domiciliary account, and rather keep it local currency, leading to cases where the scholars find themselves in desperate situations, TETFund has said.

“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.

Transnational education

TETFund said it is collaborating with the National Universities Commission (NUC) to intensify efforts to implement the Trans-national Education Guidelines “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 prioritise their training needs for implementation in Nigerian institutions and ensure strict compliance.”

The NUC has since 2022 noted that it developed a guideline for the implementation of a transnational education “to guide foreign investment and partnerships between foreign universities and their Nigerian counterparts.”

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About TETFund

Established in 2011, TETFund administers, manages, disburses, and monitors the judicious utilisation of the now three per cent Tertiary Education Tax paid by all registered companies operating in Nigeria.

It was formerly the Education Tax Act (1993) with a mandate to operate as an intervention fund to all levels of public education – from basic to tertiary education.

However, in 2011, the Act was repealed and replaced with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Act which focuses only on public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.