Government Reviews Foreign Scholarships, Targets Stronger Local Institutions

edutvnigeria

27/08/26 • 223 Pogledi • 0 Udio • Objavljeno u ostalo

The Federal Government has commenced a review of its foreign scholarship schemes and bilateral education agreements as part of efforts to reduce unnecessary expenditure and channel more resources into..

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government could no longer justify funding overseas education for programmes that are already offered by Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Alausa explained that the review was driven by the need to build domestic capacity, improve the quality of local institutions and ensure that public funds are used more efficiently.

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

He said the proposal raised concerns because the courses were already available in Nigerian tertiary institutions, while the students would also have been required to spend their first year learning French before beginning 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 argued that the cost of sponsoring large numbers of students abroad could not be justified when Nigeria had developed substantial capacity in its tertiary education system.

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

According to the minister, the government consequently concluded that continuing the Bilateral Education Agreement in its previous form would constitute an inefficient use of public resources.

“So the Bilateral Education Agreement was not making sense, again, to us in government. It was a way to waste government funds,” Alausa said.

He further stressed the administration’s commitment to prudent spending, saying, “And this President will not waste any public funds.”

The latest policy builds on the Federal Government’s earlier decision to discontinue government-funded Bilateral Education Agreement scholarships while allowing students already benefiting from the scheme to complete their studies with continued support.

The review, however, does not amount to a blanket ban on Nigerians receiving scholarships from foreign governments. Countries willing to independently sponsor Nigerian students may continue to do so, without necessarily requiring financial support from the Nigerian government.

Alausa said foreign governments interested in sponsoring Nigerian students could continue with such arrangements.

“But when you stop the scholarship, you say countries that want to continue to give the scholarship can continue to do that,” he said.

The minister explained that the circumstances that led to the creation of the overseas scholarship programmes several decades ago had changed significantly, as Nigeria had since expanded its capacity across universities, polytechnics and colleges of 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,” he said.

“But in the last 20 years, we’ve built a number of capacities in the tertiary institutions — universities, polytechnics and colleges,” he added.

The scholarship review forms part of wider reforms by the Federal Ministry of Education aimed at repositioning Nigeria’s education sector under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, with greater emphasis on strengthening domestic institutions and ensuring value for public expenditure.

Download our Mobile App for easy access
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edutvmobile.ng&hl=en

Mobile App Lite
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edutvng.lite
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edutvmobile.ng&hl=en