• The Federal Government said it will not reverse the cancellation of the Bilateral Education Agreement scholarship scheme
• Education Minister Tunji Alausa said Nigerian institutions now have the capacity to offer most courses previously studied abroad
• The government argued that sponsoring students overseas for locally available courses is a waste of public funds

The Federal Government has reaffirmed its decision to discontinue the Bilateral Education Agreement scholarship scheme, insisting that the policy will not be reversed because it no longer aligns with Nigeria’s educational priorities.

In an interview with PUNCH on Saturday, May 16, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated that Nigeria now has sufficient capacity within its universities and other tertiary institutions to offer most of the courses for which students were previously sponsored to study abroad.

According to the minister, continuing to fund such programmes would amount to an unnecessary financial burden on the government, especially when similar courses are available locally.

“There is no need for the programme. We have those courses here.

“It will cost government $10,000 for a student to study abroad courses that we have here. Let them study here. We can’t waste government money,” Alausa said.

He emphasised that the government had no plans to revisit the decision, noting that the country’s education sector had undergone significant development over the years.

“That has been discontinued; the government is not going back on that. We have capacity. Nigerian education is better than some of these places,” he added.

The minister also questioned the logic behind sponsoring students to study in countries where language barriers and academic differences could create challenges for beneficiaries.

“Some of these people go to Sudan, the Niger Republic, and Morocco. How can a Nigerian be sponsored to go and study English in Morocco, a French-speaking country?” he queried.

Alausa explained that the BEA scholarship scheme was originally established several decades ago to support academic exchange between Nigeria and partner countries at a time when Nigerian universities lacked the capacity to offer specialised courses, particularly in science and technology-related fields.

However, he alleged that the programme had gradually been abused, with scholarships allegedly awarded for courses already widely available in Nigerian institutions.

“The BEA was conceived many decades ago to facilitate the exchange of students between countries that signed the agreement.

“At that time, we didn’t have many of those courses in Nigeria, especially in science, technology and engineering. But over the years, Nigeria’s tertiary education system has developed robustly,” he explained.

The minister further claimed that irregularities had emerged within the scheme in recent years, including cases where some beneficiaries allegedly received government funds without remaining in their host countries.

“We also have evidence that some of these students go there, collect the money, and are actually in Nigeria,” he alleged, describing the situation as corrupt practices that defeated the purpose of the programme.

Despite scrapping the scheme, the Federal Government assured current beneficiaries that their funding obligations would still be honoured until they complete their studies.

Government records show that the budget for servicing the scholarship programme increased from N3.2bn in 2022 to N8bn in 2025, raising concerns over the sustainability of the initiative.

The Federal Government officially discontinued the BEA scholarship programme in April 2025 while pledging continued support for students already enrolled under the arrangement.

FG plans to convert colleges of education to universities, says minister

Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that the Federal Government was considering converting all federal colleges of education into universities of education due to declining enrollment.

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, emphasised the need for the transition, citing the inefficiency of the current model and comparisons with advanced countries.