CBN policies may force TETFUND to suspend foreign scholarships.

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has said that the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy has created difficulties in paying foreign scholarship tuition fees and stipends and may lead to suspending foreign scholarships to Nigerians.

The Executive Secretary of the TETFund, Sonny Echono, who spoke yesterday in Abuja at a One-Day Stakeholders’ Engagement on Emerging Issues with the TETFund Intervention, said that since the fund’s allocation is barely enough to service programmes under its Tertiary Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS), the Fund is considering suspending foreign scholarships.

He said, however, that the Fund is considering an upward review of local scholarships.

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” The Fund at this 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 and brought it under intense scrutiny.

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

The executive secretary said that the Fund recently signed several MoUs with some prestigious institutions overseas, including universities in Malaysia, India, Brazil, France and the United States, to boost and enhance the TSAS programme in the future.

Also speaking, the Acting Executive Secretary National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki, stressed the need to develop new strategies for funding while ensuring sensitivity to the evolving challenging dynamics through qualitative funding.

CBN policies may force TETFUND to suspend foreign scholarships.

Maiyaki advised the Fund to revamp its quality assurance monitoring mechanism for a better return on investment in its projects.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the House Committee on TETFund, Mrs Miriam Onuoha, said that in making essential infrastructure available in tertiary institutions, there was a need to ensure inclusivity, especially with Persons Living With Disabilities (PLWD).

“In our physical planning, we must make accessible the building to accommodate the needs of PLWD,” she said.

This was even as the former Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Peter Okebukola, called for a monitoring and implementation system to ensure that the academic calendars of universities were adhered to.

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