About N3.8billion has been spent on 1,500 Nigerian scholars studying abroad, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has said.
The agency said the disbursement was done under its academic training programme as a bailout fund to cushion the effect of the current exchange rate of the naira.
The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, made this known during an oversight visit to the agency by the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund on Thursday in Abuja.
He said the high exchange rate caused some challenges for TETFund-sponsored scholars, as many of them requested extra funding, adding that the issue has also resulted in a drop in the number of beneficiaries of TETFund’s academic training programmes in foreign institutions.
While saying that the remittances process for scholars in the past was not that good, Echono said many of the institutions came back to TETFund expressing concerns over the payment system.
Echono said: “But we now pay directly to the institution as part of our intervention. So CBN now transfers in bulk to different institutions for those scholars.
“We have taken care of 1500 scholars with a total of N3.8 billion expended. We identify a cut-off point for those who will be eligible for the scholarship.”
The TETFund boss, who commended the Miriam Onuoha-led Reps’ Committee, also reeled out various projects and interventions of the agency that are fast making positive impacts in the country.
He lavished praise on the committee for its support, which has seen a rise in education tax collection from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent.
He said the collection from education tax in 2020 was N257 billion, and by 2021, TETFund received a sharp decline in the tax collection of N185.5 billion.
He added that the collection rose to N328.8 billion in 2022 and N725 billion in 2023, respectively.
On the issue of attracting foreign grants for cutting-edge research, Echono said before now, Nigeria was not doing well, adding that through the efforts of TETFund, the story has now changed, as it moved from 9th position to 7th in Africa in terms of countries that attract the highest research grants on the continent.
Chairman of the committee, Miriam Onuoha, lauded Echono for the manner in which he has meticulously executed projects and other interventions in line with the mandate of the TETFund.
