FG Scraps Funding For Overseas Scholarships, Says Spending On Courses Available In Nigeria Wasteful

• The Federal Government has scrapped new government-funded overseas scholarships under its Bilateral Education Agreement, saying it is wasteful to spend scarce public resources on programmes already available in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

• Education Minister, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government took the decision after identifying arrangements that required Nigeria to sponsor large numbers of students abroad for courses that could be studied at home.

• Alausa cited a proposal to send about 100,000 Nigerian students to Morocco, including to study mass communication and journalism, despite the availability of such programmes in Nigeria and the requirement for the students to first learn French.

• The government said existing beneficiaries would continue to receive funding until they complete their studies, while foreign governments remain free to sponsor Nigerian students under their own scholarship programmes.

August 27, () — The Federal Government has scrapped funding for new overseas scholarships under its Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), saying it can no longer justify spending scarce public resources to send Nigerian students abroad to study programmes already available in the country’s tertiary institutions.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the decision was part of a broader review of the government’s foreign scholarship and bilateral education arrangements aimed at eliminating unnecessary expenditure and redirecting resources towards strengthening Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Alausa explained that the government was not opposed to international education or foreign scholarships but was concerned about committing Nigerian taxpayers’ money to overseas programmes where adequate domestic capacity already exists.

He said the circumstances that justified sending large numbers of Nigerian students abroad decades ago had changed considerably, with Nigeria having developed substantial capacity across its tertiary education system.

The minister disclosed that shortly after assuming office, he was presented with a proposal involving about 100,000 Nigerian students travelling to Morocco to study courses taught in English, including mass communication and journalism.

According to him, the proposal raised serious concerns because the programmes were already available in Nigeria, while the students would also have been required to spend their first year learning French before commencing their academic programmes.

“Number one, we have all those courses in Nigeria. And yet, number two, they were going to spend the first year learning French before they started the programme”, Alausa said.

He added that the financial implications could not be justified when the same resources could support a much larger number of students and strengthen institutions within Nigeria.

“And number three, in the position of a few million to support this in Nigeria, we support thousands of them.”

Alausa said the government subsequently concluded that continuing the BEA in its previous form would amount to an inefficient use of public funds.

“So the Bilateral Education Agreement was not making sense, again, to us in government. It was a way to waste government funds. And this President will not waste any public funds”, the minister said.

Existing Beneficiaries To Complete Studies

The decision to scrap new government funding for overseas scholarships does not affect students who are already beneficiaries of the programme.

The Federal Government has clarified that students currently enrolled under the previous bilateral scholarship arrangements will continue to receive the necessary support until they complete their studies.

However, new government-funded awards under the arrangement have been discontinued following the review.

The policy also does not amount to a blanket prohibition on Nigerians receiving scholarships from foreign governments.

According to the minister, foreign governments willing to sponsor Nigerian students remain free to do so. Such students would, however, not necessarily require financial support from the Nigerian government.

The Bilateral Education Agreement scholarship programme was designed to provide Nigerian students with opportunities to study in foreign institutions, particularly in areas where Nigeria previously lacked sufficient educational capacity. The programme formed part of Nigeria’s educational cooperation with other countries and has, over the years, provided opportunities for students to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate studies overseas.

However, changing circumstances in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector have prompted renewed questions about the continued justification for using public funds to sponsor large numbers of students abroad. Nigeria now has numerous universities, polytechnics and colleges of education offering a wide range of academic and professional programmes that were previously unavailable or insufficiently developed locally.

Alausa said many of the bilateral scholarship arrangements were established at a time when Nigeria lacked sufficient capacity in several areas of tertiary education.

“When those programmes were set up 20 years ago, they were meant to get students to go to the government colleges where we did not have capacity,. But in the last 20 years, we’ve built a number of capacities in the tertiary institutions — universities, polytechnics and colleges,” he said

Alausa said the government had also identified cases in which scholarship beneficiaries expected to study abroad were instead studying in Nigerian universities, further exposing weaknesses in the previous system and reinforcing the need for a review.

“So we have to start with Nigerians”, he said.