The Federal Government is reviewing its foreign scholarship and bilateral education arrangements as part of efforts to eliminate unnecessary expenditure. The government will redirect public resources towards strengthening Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government could no longer justify spending scarce public funds to send students abroad to study programmes already available in Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Minister questions BEA arrangement
Alausa recalled that shortly after assuming office, he was presented with a proposal involving about 100,000 Nigerian students travelling to Morocco. They were to study courses taught in English, including mass communication and journalism. According to him, the proposal raised serious concerns because the courses were already available in Nigeria. Furthermore, the students would have had to spend their first year learning French before commencing their programmes.
“Number one, we have all those courses in Nigeria,” Alausa said. “And yet, number two, they were going to spend the first year learning French before they started the programme.”
“So the Bilateral Education Agreement was not making sense, again, to us in government. It was a way to waste government funds,” he added. “And this President will not waste any public funds.”
Government maintains support for existing beneficiaries
The Federal Government has clarified that existing beneficiaries of the bilateral scholarship programme would not be abandoned. They would continue to receive support until the completion of their studies. However, new government-funded awards under the arrangement have been discontinued following a review of the programme. The policy does not amount to a blanket ban on Nigerians receiving scholarships from foreign governments.
Foreign governments willing to sponsor Nigerian students can continue to offer such opportunities. However, the Federal Government intends to be more selective about committing Nigerian public funds to overseas education.
Domestic capacity has grown significantly
Alausa explained that the circumstances that justified sending large numbers of Nigerian students abroad decades ago had changed considerably.
“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,” he said. “But in the last 20 years, we’ve built a number of capacities in the tertiary institutions — universities, polytechnics and colleges.”
Government strengthens domestic support
The Federal Government has simultaneously been strengthening domestic student support mechanisms. These include scholarships and bursaries for Nigerian students and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which provides financial support to students in tertiary institutions.
Alausa said the government’s broader objective was to create a tertiary education system capable of producing the skills, research, and innovations required for national development.
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