The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, has explained that the agency suspended its foreign scholarship programme for lecturers due to rising costs and the growing number of scholars who fail to return to Nigeria after studying abroad.
He noted that the sharp fall in the naira meant spending nearly N100 million on just one scholar, and many beneficiaries stayed overseas despite being fully sponsored and still receiving salaries from their institutions back home.
Echono described it as a “double tragedy” and said the decision was necessary as the programme had become financially and ethically unsustainable.