Mirian Gom 
ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria’s Federal Government says it scraps the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship scheme after uncovering widespread abuse, fraudulent enrolments and questionable overseas study approvals linked to the programme.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, revealed during a televised interview on Tuesday that authorities have already disbursed ₦4bn to outstanding beneficiaries, while another ₦4bn awaits approval within two weeks. He says the scheme drifts far from its original diplomatic and academic purpose.
“We’ve paid four billion of it. We’re disbursing the four billion now. This additional four billion will be approved,” Alausa says.
The minister discloses that one of the first documents presented to him after assuming office requests approval of ₦650m to sponsor 60 students to Morocco. He questions why Nigeria sponsors a student to study English in a predominantly French-speaking country.
“Had so many of those courses, psychology, sociology, zoology, botany,” he says, describing the expenditure as unjustifiable.
According to Alausa, the BEA programme originally exists to train Nigerians in specialised fields such as engineering, medicine and aeronautics through bilateral agreements with countries including China, Russia, Egypt and Serbia.
He also alleges that some beneficiaries simultaneously study in Nigerian universities while collecting foreign scholarship allowances.
The controversy follows months of hardship for more than 1,200 Nigerian scholars abroad after stipend payments reportedly stopped between September 2023 and August 2024. Students later receive reduced allowances, with some allegedly evicted from hostels and denied university services over unpaid fees.
Although the government formally cancels the programme in April 2025, a ₦1.7bn allocation still appears in the 2026 Appropriation Bill. Authorities insist the provision is merely a procedural rollover and not a policy reversal.
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Otamere Gladness 
Edino Chubiyo Cornelius 