By Ngozi Nwankwo
Tertiary Education Trust Fund,TETFund, TETFund has finally reacted to media reports about a group of Nigerian lecturers studying under the sponsorship of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff,TSAS, programme, alleging deliberate omission of their names from the bailout approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for stranded TETFund scholars abroad, and making spurious claims of malfeasance in the scholarship allocations.
The Fund specifically noted the case of one Kamal Adewole Saka, a lecturer at Federal University, Oye Ekiti, who was awarded a TETFund scholarship for Ph.D. in Psychology at Girne American University, Cyprus to the tune of N27,573,350.00 and has lately been in the media wrongly accusing staff of the Fund of “embezzling his N10 million scholarship grant” when, in actual sense, his full tuition had since been paid directly to the institution since 3rd November, 2022.
Fund said it had reported expending over N3.8 billion as bailout to about 1500 stranded Nigerian scholars studying abroad under the TSAS programme to cushion the effect of the current exchange rate in compliance with Mr. President’s directive, it has become imperative to give detailed background and steps taken generally by the Fund and to specifically address the disinformation being peddled by Kamal Adewole Saka.
According to the Fund, TSAS Intervention programme was introduced in 2008 to sponsor teaching staff of Nigerian Public Tertiary educational institutions to acquire additional postgraduate degrees both within and outside Nigeria to enhance their research experience and teaching capacity. The maximum duration of PhD programmes is four years while for Masters degree is one year in Europe and two years in other parts of the world.
Fund said prior to September 2019, all approved funds were disbursed to Beneficiary institutions, and they were required to lodge the full amount into domiciliary accounts and release same to various scholars in line with the Fund’s guidelines.
It explained that arising from observations made during monitoring exercises and through numerous complaints of late release of funds and non-operation of domiciliary accounts by some Beneficiary Institutions, the Fund in 2019 adopted direct payment of tuition fees to foreign institutions on behalf of the scholars.
Emphasizing on the key findings from previous inspection, TETFund said scholars were complaining about delays in release of Funds by scholars’ home institutions; Scholars were affected by the exchange rate fluctuations due to non-operation of a domiciliary account by their home institutions, which left them indebted on their programme; a lot of scholars complained that their duration of studies was for four years, while the Fund processed their tuition and allowances for three years , leaving them with a shortfall of one year.
Other complaints included, a lot of foreign training institutions were not aware that the scholars were being sponsored by TETFund; a lot of scholars expressed lack of communication between them and their home institutions; Some scholars changed their institutions of study based on the approvals obtained from their home institutions, contrary to the Fund’s guidelines; Some scholars complained about their home institutions introducing administrative charges on funds approved for them by the Fund; and a lot of scholars complained that their Desk officers were making life difficult as they did not attend to their issues in good time.
While enumerating the policy changes introduced to address the key findings, the Fund said it underwent review of the guidelines for accessing the TSAS intervention programme which informed the introduction of the following:sensitization visits to all TETFund beneficiary institutions to acquaint them with the Fund’s guidelines; introduction of the issuance of scholarship award letters to all approved individual scholars; review of the duration of studies for PhD from 3 years to 4 years (Tuition fee payment for three years and Upkeep payment for 4years); and introduction of the Postdoctoral Fellowship programme.
Other policy changes include: Commencement of the direct payment of tuition fees in favour of scholars to approved foreign institutions of study; Opening of TETFund dedicated email addresses for all beneficiary institutions;
Opening of Departmental email addresses; Processing of funds in favour of stranded scholars based on information provided by the concerned scholars; and signing of MoU with selected foreign Universities.
Reacting on the steps taken so far on the financial bailout of concerned scholars, Fund said, ” The Fund requested for status update in respect of the implementation of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff Intervention Programme with a view to reconciling its records and addressing genuine and verifiable challenges.
“The request comprised the following: details of all returnee scholars ( All TETFund scholars that have completed studies (local and foreign); Details of all abscondees ( Scholars that failed to return to their duty posts upon completion of studies ), including all moves made by the beneficiary institution to trace the whereabouts of the abscondees; Details of scholars with extension on approved duration of studies; Evidence of operation of domiciliary account for the foreign exchange component of the programme; and Any other key/vital information you may find useful for the reconciliation exercise.Unfortunately, the feedback from beneficiary institutions on the request has not been impressive, which informed reminders being sent to the institutions on same, severally.
“So far, a total of 84 beneficiary institutions have responded to the Fund’s request.
“The Honourable Minister of Education vide a letter No FME/PSE/720/C.2/IV/713, dated 30th October, 2023 conveyed the approval for the processing of bailout requests received from Beneficiary Institutions in respect of the compilation of shortfalls in tuition and upkeep earlier approved in favour of the concerned and verified scholars with a view to addressing their financial challenges; all TETFund beneficiary institutions were communicated to compile/ collate all eligible scholars for bailout and forward same to the Fund for compliance with the Minister’s approval; sequel to the Honourable Minister’s approval, the total number of scholars processed for bailout stands at 1,476 Scholars and the sum of N3,897,282,932.00 was processed and disbursed in favour of concerned scholars. (i.e On-going Masters and PhD Only),” it stated in the press statement issued to newsmen in Abuja, weekend.
It further said, ” The bailout processed so far was activated based on substantiating documents presented in favour of concerned scholars .
“In order to control the influx of requests and publications by faceless groups, the Fund in a letter dated 15th April, 2024 informed TETFund foreign scholars through their supposed ‘Caretaker’ and also heads of Beneficiary Institutions on the following: The group(s) or association should discontinue usage of the Fund’s logo and its name, as no permission was granted to that effect;
That all requests and communication concerning the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff programme must be routed through Scholars’ home institution(s) who are the beneficiaries of TETFund and nominated the scholars in the first place.”
TETFund emphasised that scholars who have completed their programmes and returned home, abscondees, benchwork and postdoc programme were not eligible for the bailout as recommended by Fund and approved by Mr. President.
It also explained that it suspended the foreign component of the TSAS intervention for a period of two years due to the following reasons: Operational changes to the foreign exchange market, that led to the abolition of the official exchange rate at the Central Bank of Nigeria; insufficient 2023 Allocation for the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff Intervention Programme Sub-head;
Paucity of funds as regards beneficiary institution’s available balances, amongst others.
While pledging its commitment to ensuring smooth academic pursuits of scholars, TETFund restated that it’s duidelines on the TSAS programme clearly stipulate the appropriate channel for addressing scholars’ plights, which is through their home institutions that nominated them in the first instance and not any other platform.
“It is also worthy of note that the Fund will continue to support eligible scholars to pursue their academic programmes irrespective of some seemingly deliberate smear campaigns by a handful aimed at distracting us from this onerous endeavour,” it stated.