TETFund breaks silence on Tinubu’s directive on scholars stranded overseas

Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has disclosed that the financial challenge raised by some Nigerian scholars on its sponsored foreign scholarship is being addressed by the Federal Ministry of Education.
It said the minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has taken over the issue, and demanded some detailed information and actions from the TETFund on the way to resolve the issue raised by the scholars abroad.
A senior official of TETFund who spoke in reaction to the allegation of neglect raised by the scholars confirmed they had received the complaint and were acting on it.
The official said: “We received the complaint from the affected scholars and we are working to fix the challenge. The minister has requested the details from TETFund, and that has been provided. He is yet to take action on that, and it will not be good for TETFund to start speaking on that matter when the minister is yet to take the necessary action. That is why we are yet to make a statement on the matter.”
TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, had, in May, disclosed that N3.8 billion was spent to bailout 1,500 Nigerian scholars who had been abroad since 2017 and had sought the Federal Government’s intervention.
But a disturbing development emerged recently that TETfund had snubbed President Bola Tinubu’s directive to support all foreign Nigerian scholars affected by the ill-fated exchange rate.
It was also discovered that the group of aggrieved scholars have written Save Our Souls (SOS) letters to several authorities, including the Presidency, Senate, House of Representatives, Ministry of Education and TETfund among others and appealed for assistance but their efforts are yet to yield any positive response from the authorities. It was also gathered that the affected scholars have made several consultations with officials of TETFund but all such efforts have been futile over the time.
One of the SOS letters read in part: “… l am writing on behalf of TETFund sponsored foreign scholars who were omitted from the payment of the recently approved presidential bailout to all TETFund foreign scholars from 2018 to 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 President Tinubu, as this would alleviate the burden on scholars. However, our confidence in the fair implementation of the disbursement has been severed.
“Currently, about 45 per cent of the TETFund sponsored foreign scholars were omitted in the disbursement of the presidential-approved bailout by TETFund, subjecting scholars to harsh conditions amidst the current economic realities. 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 Fund.
“Meanwhile, both scholars on their programme and those recently completed were unjustly omitted without any tangible justification provided.
“Initially, there was 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 and March 2024. This includes scholars across Europe, Asia, America and other parts of the globe, while TETFund refused to pay fellow scholars in the same categories with no concrete justification.
“Additionally, we strongly believe that the alien criteria of ongoing and completed does not hold through in the case of scholars due to many reasons, including the fact that all scholars under review are affected by COVID-19 or naira devaluation.
“For instance, a 2019 PhD scholar, affected by COVID-19 upon resumption to his school, subjected to quarantine, naira devaluation (from N250 per dollar in 2019 to N450 in 2020 and over N1,500 in 2023) and post-COVID-19 inflation, this is aside from flight fare that has exponentially increased. This shows that such scholars under review (as generously considered by the Presidency) have witnessed severe financial crises and harsh economic realities.
“To buttress, we have witnessed instances where TETFund paid scholars who even completed their programme as early as 2022, and yet refused to pay both ongoing and the recently completed scholars, who have run into severe financial crises. Aside from the ongoing and completed cases, TETFund has also omitted foreign sponsored scholars on benchwork and post-doctoral programmes within this same time frame, who had been subjected to equal economic hardship in foreign land.
“Currently, most omitted scholars are either in debt or battling with depression, due to the harsh financial situations caused by their omission from the presidential approved bailout.”
Speaking through their Chairman, Kamal Odunjo-Saka, the aggrieved scholars appealed to President Tinubu to come to their rescue by prevailing on TETfund to disburse their funds accordingly.
“We have absolute faith in our dear president and are very sure he would consider our plight and urgently assist us by prevailing on TETfund to, without delay, disburse our withheld funds for survival,” he said.