“It’s waste of resources”: FG Scraps Bea Scholarship Program

Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa
The Federal Government has canceled the Bea (Bilateral Education Agreement) scholarship program.

The government said that the Bea was a waste of resources since the tertiary institutions in Nigeria offer the same courses that the Nigerians were about to study in foreign institutions.

The Minister of Education, dr. Maruf Alausa made this known as he received the new -elective officials of the National Association of Nigerian Students (Nans) in Abuja on Tuesday 29 April 2025.

Bea is a product of strong diplomatic relationships and mutual cooperation, which allows Nigerian students to continue academic studies in partner countries such as China, Russia, Algeria, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt and Serbia.

The Nigerians of the Bea scholarship dragged the federal government for abandoning and refused to pay their indemnities, which according to them were making it difficult to survive and satisfy themselves.

Recently, the government has observed that all additional allowances due to Nigerian scholars were paid until December 2024 and appealed to students to exercise patience since additional funding had been requested to guarantee the full remittance of rights to all students affected by the shortcomings in the provision of funds caused by the fluctuations of the exchange rate.

However, Alausa said that the Nigerian government will no longer continue with the Bea scholarship program, since it expressed regret for the attitude of “blackmail” of some Nigerian students who were under the program, on social media.

The minister that the funds spent in the scholarship program would prefer to be injected into scholarship programs within the country.

He said: “Last year when I arrived here, with what we had, 60 students will go to Morocco in this Bea program and they asked me to sign N650 million for these students and I said no, it was not fair for the Nigerian students, I didn’t sign it.

“I looked at all the courses; a student went to Algeria a French language country to study English; a little psychology, sociology. Courses we have here and we do better here.

“At the end of 2024, all scholarships were paid. The scholarships for 2025 were not paid due to the appropriation of the budget. I am sorry that it could be late but in the coming months they will get their scholarship.

“We don’t even check their results if they are progressing, but we are paying the free passage every year and I thought it was not right for Nigerian students.

“Only this year 2025 have we foreseen a budget of N9 billion for this student for 1,200 students. For the government to spend n9 billion n9 billion for only 1200 students to go to Egypt, in Algeria to study English, sociology, psychology is not fair.

“In the last week we have heard on social media that we abandoned them. We have to wait for the government to pay them, but they started blackmailing the government.

“We evaluated every single course for each of the courses that those 1,200 students study abroad, we have them in Nigeria.

“We will cancel this Bea; it is not the best use of money, we are cheating on other Nigerian students who are studying here. Those funds will be lined up to give you more scholarships here at the local level.

“We will fulfill our obligations for those students who are there now for them to complete their studies, but from this year 2025 we will no longer accept a bilateral education agreement. It is a waste of our resources.”

Previously, the newly elected president of Nans, Olushola Oladoja, praised the minister for the steps from which he reached his assumption of charge.