Amidst mounting public debt stock and volatile foreign exchange, the federal government of Nigeria, through the Ministry of Education, has declared a reduction of 12.7 percent in the allowances for Nigerians who are currently pursuing academic studies on government scholarship overseas in countries like Russia, Morocco, Algeria, China, Hungary, and others. This decision was justified as a response to Nigeria’s present economic difficulties. According to reports, the beneficiaries of the Bilateral Educational Agreement Scholarship (BEA) from the Nigerian government, have not received stipends for the last eight months.
With this reduction, PG research allowances went from $1,000 to $500, monthly allowances from $500 to $220, and graduation allowances from $2500 to $2000. These funds, which formerly totalled $5,650 per student, will now only total $4,370. Moving forward, payment structure for BEA beneficiaries allowances will reflect these new changes. The ministry promised to settle any unpaid arrears for the years 2023 and 2024 when funds are released. Ayuba Anas, President of the Union of Nigerian Students under the scholarship, had voiced concerns about the allowance delays, lamenting that some of the scholars had not received allowances since arriving in China in April and May 2023.
72 Nigerians were awarded scholarships in Hungary.
The government launched the Bilateral Educational Agreement Scholarship scheme to foster educational exchange and strengthen bilateral relationships between Nigeria and these partner countries. This scheme make it simpler for Nigerian students willing to pursue Higher Education overseas by covering tuition costs in addition to offering extra support in the form of monthly stipends, assistance with travel expenses, and help with housing. Numerous nations that joined the Bilateral Education Agreement, including Algeria, China, Egypt, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, and others, have received hundreds of beneficiaries.
However, the beneficiaries are being denigrated abroad due to government’s persistent inability to fulfil its financial obligations over the past ten years. Many young students now face the possibility of being forced into impoverishment as a result of the government’s failure to provide this crucial monthly payment. Data from FSB shows that Nigeria sent 673 BEA scholarship nominations to at least nine different countries between 2015 and 2018. 175 students were sent to Russia in the 2022–2023 academic year to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in various fields. Whereas, 72 Nigerians were awarded BEA scholarships to study in Hungary for the 2023/2024 academic session.
Volatility of foreign exchange impact BEA budget.
Despite its seeming inability to immediately fund them, government send these young intellectuals overseas each year. Current foreign exchange crisis in the country on remittances to BEA beneficiaries is an issue that has mainly gone unmentioned. The 2023 budget’s benchmark exchange rate, which was ₦435/1$ for the BEA, dropped to over ₦1,400/1$ on both the official and Black Market due to the Volatility of foreign exchange and the floating of Naira. Consequently, the beneficiaries are largely impacted as their allowance are paid on a monthly basis.
This implies that any significant decline in the value of the Naira will result in a reduction in the amount paid to BEA beneficiaries in distant nations. BEA beneficiaries worry that if a long term resolution is not put in place, government ongoing default on their allowances may never end. The National Budget analysis reveals that the BEA scheme’s service costs skyrocketed from ₦904.1 million in 2019 to ₦6.8 billion in 2024. A likely rise in the number of scholarships awarded is one of the factors contributing to the cost increase, along with hike tuition fees, living expenditures overseas, and lodging prices.
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Education experts contend that that Legislation should be adopted to protect government scholarships from further FX volatility, while some pointed out that Nigeria government should think about discontinuing the BEA program if it is no longer viable. In a similar vein,, there has been global reporting of the woes of beneficiaries of federal scholarships being criticized. In 2020, CNN reported that Nigerians who received scholarships from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) were abandoned in the UK. There are also reports that during the pandemic, scholars under the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) were also left stranded overseas.