Over 137 Students ‘Disappear’ Abroad After Enjoying FG Overseas Scholarship

The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Sonny Echono has revealed how over 137 students failed to return to Nigeria after enjoying the federal government scholarship for their overseas studies.

According to Echono who spoke on Tuesday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee investigating the alleged mismanagement of N2.3tn tertiary education tax by TETFund, the students simply absconded after getting the overseas scholarships.

The Executive Secretary insisted TETFund did not mismanage the N2.3tn fund

He explained that some fail to return to Nigeria after completing their studies while some others abscond right from school.

“Some of the scholars that have been sponsored, unpatriotically when they go, they enjoy our scholarship, acquire a higher degree, then refuse to come back, it has become a major crisis.

“The scholarship requires that you will come back. It is required that you have a guarantor and in many cases, the guarantor has suffered undue hardship because when you disappear, we hold the guarantor to pay all the money expended on your behalf but that has not been effective,” he lamented.

Echono said TETFund intends to deploy stiffer measures to ensure those who benefit from the scholarships abide by the term and conditions.

“We believe that in a system where we work with our embassies and the institutions, we can enforce the repayment for those who insist they will not come back,” he said.

He added that, “We will write to the embassies and they will make it available to those countries and they will not be able to get jobs. They will be seen as fugitives of law from their countries.

“We may have to take that hard stand because the numbers are alarming. We just checked about 40 institutions and over 137 absconders and the review is ongoing.

“It is a huge number that we cannot afford and so we will be seeking your support to strengthen some of the existing regulations to ensure that those who benefit from this programme must come back.

“We are not against people looking for greener pastures but do so on your own, not through our scholarship or our sponsorship.”

Furthermore, the TETFUND boss said the inability to get foreign exchange at a cheaper rate from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may force them to suspend foreign scholarships due to the exchange rate crisis.

According to him, most of their trainings would now be done locally.

He added, “We operate a system where our forex is being sold on our behalf at an official rate and we apply like anybody else to get it, sometimes it leads to additional cost.

“Currently as I speak, we are in consultations with all our stakeholders to suspend foreign training for a year or two.

“This is because of the recent exchange rate adjustments. We are unable to continue based on our disbursement guidelines.

“The money we allocated in naira cannot cover the dollar requirement for training. For those who are currently there, we now need more naira to pay for the dollar that is required for their annual fees. We are trying to put a hold.”

Echono also said the federal government was owning TETFund N371.3 billion out of which it has repaid N46 billion so far.

The chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, said the probe is not to witch-hunt anyone, adding that the lawmakers are out to stop the misuse of public funds.