Gom Mirian
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has revealed its contemplation of suspending foreign scholarships while also considering an upward review of local scholarships, Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono outlined the compelling reasons behind this bold initiative.
According to Echono, the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy had created difficulties in the payment of foreign scholarship tuition fees and stipends. He also noted that scholars who are offered foreign scholarships have failed to return to serve their bonds at their home institutions upon completion of their programmes.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja, at a one-day stakeholders’ meeting on Emerging Issues with the TETFund Intervention Echono explained that this move is not intended to deny scholars the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills from the best institutions in the world, but rather to ensure that they return to Nigeria to use their acquired skills and knowledge to contribute to the growth and development of the country.
He said:” The fund at this material time is also discouraging beneficiary institutions from initiating new Benchwork programmes. Infact the challenge of scholars absconding has undermined and complicated the TSAS programme and bringing it under intense scrutiny.
” It is for these and other reasons that this engagement was organised. We need to address these challenges and find solutions to ensure the effective and smooth implementation of our scholarship programmes,” he said.
The Acting Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki, emphasized the need to develop new strategies for funding while ensuring sensitivity of the evolving challenging dynamics through qualitative funding. To improve the return on investment for its initiatives, he asked the fund to update its quality assurance monitoring system.
Also, Mrs. Miriam Onuoha, the chairman of the House Committee on TETFund, stated that in order to achieve inclusion, particularly with Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWD), it was necessary to make basic infrastructure available at tertiary institutions. “In our physical planning, we must make accessible the building to be accommodating to the needs of PLWD,” she said.
