By James Adamu
The Federal Government has considered ending its foreign scholarship programme under the Bilateral Education Agreement, deciding instead to channel public funds towards strengthening Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, who disclosed this development, said the government could no longer justify spending scarce public resources to send Nigerian students abroad to study courses already available in domestic tertiary institutions.
Alausa explained that the decision was driven by the need to build local capacity and ensure better value for public expenditure, adding that the circumstances that necessitated foreign scholarships two decades ago had changed considerably.
He recalled that shortly after assuming office, he was presented with a proposal involving about 100,000 Nigerian students travelling to Morocco to study courses taught in English, including mass communication and journalism.
The minister said the proposal raised serious concerns because the courses were already available in Nigeria, while the students would have had to spend their first year learning French before commencing their programmes.
“Number one, we have all those courses in Nigeria,” Alausa stated.
“And yet, number two, they were going to spend the first year learning French before they started the programme. And number three, in the position of a few million to support this in Nigeria, we support thousands of them.”
The minister said the government therefore concluded that continuing the arrangement in its previous form would amount to an inefficient use of public resources.
“So the Bilateral Education Agreement was not making sense, again, to us in government. It was a way to waste government funds,” Alausa said.
“And this President will not waste any public funds.”
Existing beneficiaries not abandoned
The Federal Government clarified that existing beneficiaries of the bilateral scholarship programme would not be abandoned and would continue to receive support until the completion of their studies.
However, new government-funded awards under the arrangement have been discontinued following the review of the programme.
The policy does not amount to a blanket ban on Nigerians receiving scholarships from foreign governments.
Foreign governments willing to sponsor Nigerian students can continue to offer such opportunities, but the Federal Government intends to be more selective about committing Nigerian public funds to overseas education.
Alausa similarly explained that foreign countries willing to continue sponsoring Nigerian students could do so without necessarily requiring financial support from the Nigerian government.
The minister said the circumstances that justified sending large numbers of Nigerian students abroad decades ago had changed considerably.
“When those programmes were set up 20 years ago, they were meant to get students to go to the government colleges where we did not have capacity,” he said.
“But in the last 20 years, we’ve built a number of capacities in the tertiary institutions — universities, polytechnics and colleges.”
The scholarship review comes amid broader reforms by the Federal Ministry of Education aimed at repositioning Nigeria’s education system under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
The reforms have focused increasingly on strengthening domestic tertiary institutions, expanding technical and vocational education and training, improving digital education, promoting research and innovation, and making education more responsive to the needs of the economy
The Federal Government has simultaneously been strengthening domestic student support mechanisms, including scholarships and bursaries for Nigerian students and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which provides financial support to students in tertiary institutions.
Alausa said the government’s broader objective was to create a tertiary education system capable of producing the skills, research and innovations required for national development.
He recently inaugurated the Tertiary Institution National Gallery Prize Committee to recognise outstanding academic research and innovation, particularly research with potential for commercialisation and industrial application.
“We want undergraduate researchers to see a clear pathway from academic research to industrial application, enterprise, innovation, and national development,” he said.
The minister said Nigeria could no longer afford to measure the success of its education system simply by the number of certificates awarded.
“The most successful nations of the 21st century will not necessarily be those endowed with greater natural resources. They will be those that can systematically transform knowledge into solutions, research and intellectual capital into economic and industrial value,” Alausa added.
The push to retain more education spending within Nigeria reflects the government’s broader objective of strengthening local institutions rather than relying excessively on overseas opportunities.
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