TETFUND Considers Halting Foreign Scholarships Over CBN FX Scarcity

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has said it is considering suspending its foreign scholarships because of the difficulties in paying foreign tuition fees caused by the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy.

This was revealed by the TETFUND Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, at a one-day stakeholder engagement on Emerging Issues with the TETFUND Intervention in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said since the fund allocated for the scholarship was barely enough to service scholarship programmes under its Tertiary Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS), it was considering suspending the foreign scholarships and an upward review of local scholarships.

The CBN policy that TETFUND is referring to is the one that stops the subsidized rate of buying foreign currency for school fees and other related expenses. It was implemented in June this year, along with other new policies relating to the buying and selling of foreign currencies in Nigeria.

“The fund at this material time is also discouraging beneficiary institutions from initiating new Benchwork programmes.

“Additionally, there are issues related to scholars not returning to serve their bonds at their home institutions upon completion of their programmes.

“In fact, the challenge of scholars absconding has undermined and complicated the TSAS programme, bringing it under intense scrutiny.

“It is for these and other reasons that this engagement was organised. We need to address these challenges and find solutions to ensure the effective and smooth implementation of our scholarship programmes,” he said.

Echono added that the fund had recently signed several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with some prestigious institutions overseas, including universities in Malaysia, India, Brazil, France, and the United States, with a view to boosting and enhancing the TSAS programme in the future.