Alleged deliberate omission of scholars’ names in presidential bailout spurious –TETFund
By Uji A ILIYASU
Abuja
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) said the claim by scholars that the Fund deliberately omitted names of a some Nigerian lecturers studying under the sponsorship of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) programme, from the bailout approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for stranded TETFund scholars abroad is a misinformation.
This was disclosed on Friday by a release signed by TETFund’s Director of
Public Affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi.
“The attention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been drawn 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 notes 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,” the release reads in part.
Although the Fund had reportedly 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.
“The TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (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 (4) years while for Master’s degree is one (1) year in Europe and two (2) years in other parts of the world.
“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.
“Arising from observations made during monitoring exercises and through numerous complaints of late release of funds and non-operation of domiciliary accounts by some eneficiary Institutions, the Fund in 2019 adopted direct payment of tuition fees to foreign institutions on behalf of the scholars, according to the release.
Oniyangi said 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 programmes.
“A lot of scholars complained that their duration of studies was for four (4) years, while the Fund processed their tuition and allowances for three (3) years , leaving them with a shortfall of one (1) year.
“A lot of foreign training institutions were not aware that the scholars were being sponsored by TETFund;
and also lot of scholars expressed lack of communication between them and their home institutions;
even as some scholars changed their institutions of study based on the approvals obtained from their home institutions, contrary to the Fund’s guidelines,” Oniyangi said.
He said some scholars complained about their home institutions introducing administrative charges on funds approved for them by the Fund, while some complained that their Desk Officers were making life difficult as they did not attend to their issues in good time.