The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, has announced the discontinuation of the foreign scholarship program for lecturers in public tertiary institutions.
The decision was made due to sustainability concerns, including the rising cost of foreign exchange and cases of lecturers absconding after completing their studies. The sharp drop in the value of the local currency has led to a significant increase in the cost of sponsoring lecturers abroad, with some cases reaching nearly ₦100 million per scholar.
Many lecturers who benefited from the program failed to return to Nigeria after completing their studies, resulting in a "double tragedy" for institutions that lose staff and continue paying salaries to absent individuals.
TETFund will still grant waivers for courses not available in Nigerian institutions, such as certain programs at the aviation university. The fund has redirected resources to strengthen local scholarship schemes, which can support up to ten scholars for the cost of training one person abroad.
“The majority of our scholars used to be from here. We have a local component, and we have the foreign component. So the local component has now received a boost because we have not reduced our funding for academic staff training; instead, we have increased it,” he said.
Echono reported an "explosion" in the number of local scholars being supported under the revised academic training model. The shift to local scholarship schemes is expected to provide more cost-effective training opportunities for lecturers.
The new approach may help reduce cases of absconding and improve accountability among beneficiaries.
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