LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Nigerian scholars currently sponsored abroad by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) have accused the agency of neglecting them in fund disbursement.
They pointed out that 45 percent of scholars were excluded from payments and alleged that many received less than they were entitled to.
According to their chairman, Kamal Odunjo-Saka, the scholars accused TETFund of disregarding President Bola Tinubu’s directive to assist all Nigerian scholars abroad affected by the exchange rate.
He revealed this after investigating TETFund’s claim that N3.8 billion was disbursed as a bailout for stranded Nigerian scholars overseas due to the increasing foreign exchange rates.
As a reminder, in May, TETFund’s Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, announced that the agency disbursed N3.8 billion as a bailout to Nigerian scholars seeking Federal Government intervention due to their challenges abroad.
Echono clarified that the bailout was allocated to 1,500 scholars who had been overseas since 2017.
In a statement released to the press on behalf of the concerned scholars, Odunjo-Saka appealed to President Tinubu to intervene promptly and ensure that TETFund distributes their funds as promised.
“We have absolute faith in our dear President and are very sure that he would consider our plight and urgently assist us by prevailing on TETFund to without delay, disburse our withheld funds for survival,” he said.
READ ALSO: TETFund Offers Scholarships To Study 12 PhD Students
According to the group’s investigation it uncovered that TETFund excluded 45 percent of Nigerian scholars stranded abroad from receiving the presidential bailout funds.
“The group had also written SOS letters to several authorities including the Presidency, House of Senate, House of Representatives, Ministry of Education and Tetfund among others, and appealed for assistance and consultations made to their officials, but no positive response from the authorities and all effort proved abortive.
One of the SOS letters reads in part, “l am writing on behalf of all the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) sponsored foreign scholars who were omitted from the payment of the recently approved Presidential Bailout to all TETFund foreign scholars within the year 2018 – 2023.
“Initially, the bailout was designed as a measure to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Naira devaluation/exchange rate, and particularly, inflation in the cost of living on scholars, hence the reason for the timeframe under review (2018 – 2023) considering that scholars within this period are grossly affected.
“TETFund has been a cornerstone in supporting higher education in Nigeria, providing essential financial aid for infrastructure, research, and academic staff development. We sincerely appreciate the generous bailout approved by Mr. President, His Excellence, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as this would alleviate the burden on Scholars. However, our confidence in the fair implementation of the disbursement has been severed.
Presently, approximately 45 percent of TETFund-sponsored foreign scholars were left out of the disbursement of the presidential-approved bailout, exposing scholars to difficult conditions amidst the current economic challenges.
“While we tried to engage TETFund to ensure fairness in the disbursement, scholars were told that some are not qualified, based on programme status, while our recent request for engagement was turned down by the agency.
“Meanwhile, both scholars on their programme and those recently completed were unjustly omitted without any tangible justification provided.
“Initially, there were no segregation of scholars or any discrepancies during the agreement of conditions for bailout. Also, both ongoing and completed scholars were paid during the first and second tranches of the disbursed bailout paid between January to March 2024. This includes scholars across Europe, Asia, America and other part of the globe, while TETFund refused to pay fellow scholars in the same categories with no concrete justification.”