Nigeria Stops Funding New Scholarships Abroad

(President Bola Ahmed. Photo Credit: Naijaonpoint)

Nigeria’s federal government has stopped paying for new foreign scholarships.

The education minister said the country can no longer spend scarce money on courses that Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges already teach.

Minister Tunji Alausa explained the decision came after reviewing all the scholarship deals.

He pointed out that when the government took office, it got a proposal to send about 100,000 students to Morocco to study mass communication and journalism even though those same programmes exist in Nigeria.

On top of that, the students would have had to spend a whole year learning French before they could even start their actual courses.

The minister said it made no sense.

Nigeria has these courses, so why pay to send people abroad when the same money could support thousands more students studying at home.

He described the old arrangement as wasteful and said the president will not waste public money.

The change only applies to new awards.

Students already receiving government-backed scholarships will continue to get support until they finish their studies.

And if foreign countries want to sponsor Nigerian students on their own, that can still happen the government is just not funding those trips anymore.

Alausa noted that when these foreign scholarship programmes started twenty years ago, Nigeria did not have the capacity to teach certain courses locally.

But that has changed.

The government has built up its universities, polytechnics and colleges significantly over the past two decades, so there is no longer a need to send large numbers of students overseas.

The government now wants to focus on making Nigerian institutions stronger and more relevant to what the country needs.

It is investing in technical and vocational training, research, digital learning and skills that match industry demands.

The education ministry also set up a loan fund to help Nigerian students afford local education.

The minister stressed that government money spent on education should deliver real benefits to the country.

He wants to see academic research turn into businesses, innovations and jobs rather than just producing certificates.