We Paid About N100m Each For Some Lecturers On Foreign Scholarship And They Still Absconded
Sonny Echono, Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), has announced the discontinuation of the foreign scholarship programme for lecturers in public tertiary institutions, citing concerns over its long-term sustainability.
The intervention scheme was officially suspended in November 2024.
In an interview with TheCable, Echono cited the rising cost of foreign exchange and the frequent cases of lecturers absconding after their studies as the primary reasons for the suspension.
According to him, the fund had reached the point where it was spending nearly ₦100 million to sponsor a single scholar in some cases, owing to the exchange rate differential when converting to foreign currencies such as dollars, pounds, and euros.
“It’s a cost-benefit analysis. We are faced with two challenges. The first is the exchange rate differential. We have a situation where, because of the sharp drop in the value of the local currency, we have to provide a lot of naira cover to train a single scholar,” he said.
“The second part is that many of the beneficiaries were not being kind to the country. They make us sponsor them, and when they finish their programmes, they refuse to come back. Meanwhile, the school will be waiting for them here, expecting that they will return to impart the students.”
Echono described this situation as a “double tragedy” since institutions not only lose the staff they had released but also continue paying salaries to those individuals while they are away. He said many beneficiaries exploit loopholes, either disappearing temporarily or switching countries, making it difficult for the authorities to trace or hold them accountable.
“We are not stopping you from going abroad to look for greener pastures, but not under false pretences. Not by defrauding the government, as it were. And it was happening in huge numbers,” he added.
Despite the general suspension, Echono clarified that waivers are still granted in exceptional cases where courses of study are not available in any Nigerian institution. He cited the aviation university as a recent example, noting that specific new programmes justified such exemptions.
Echono emphasized that the decision does not signify a cut in academic staff training. Instead, TETFund has redirected resources to strengthen local scholarship schemes. According to him, training one person abroad costs the same as training up to ten within the country.
“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.
He added that TETFund is currently witnessing “an explosion” in the number of local scholars being supported under the revised academic training model.
