TETFund refutes alleged deliberate omission of scholars’ names from N3.8b bailout

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has denied embezzling N10 million scholarship grant of Kamal Adewole Saka, a Nigerian lecturer at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, studying under the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) programme.

Specifically, the agency clarified that the complete tuition of N27,573,350.00 of the scholar had since been paid directly to the institution since November 3, 2022.

TETFund Director of Public Affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi, made the clarification in a statement on Friday.

The statement noted that Saka, who was awarded a TETFund scholarship for PhD. in Psychology at Girne American University, Cyprus, had accused staff of the Fund of embezzling his N10 million scholarship grant.

The Fund refuted allegations that it deliberately omitted names from the bailout approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for stranded TETFund scholars abroad.

Oniyangi explained that 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 programme.

“Although the Fund had reported expending over N3.8 billion as bailout to about 1,500 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 statement emphasised.

It added: “In the case of Kamal Adewole Saka, he was awarded the scholarship to Girne American University on November 11, 2020, in the total sum of N27,573,350.00. His approved tuition fees of Euros 8,872.50 has been paid to Girne American University as at November 3, 2022, almost two years ago; while his upkeep and other allowances amounting to N23,846,900.00 was disbursed in full to his home institution, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, in 2020 in line with the extant schedules.

“The tuition fees of Kamal Adewole Saka were paid in two tranches based on invoices sent by the scholar: Euros 5,250 on February 11, 2021, and Euros 3,622.50 on April 1, 2021. However, the scholar notified the Fund in 2022 of non-receipt of the first tranche and after investigations with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the bank notified us that the payment failed. A fresh invoice was requested from Mr. Saka and this was used to re-process the payment of Euros 5,250.00.

The Fund has evidence of payment and status of the scholar’s account from Girne American University, showing that tuition fees have been fully paid as at November 3, 2022. It is therefore inappropriate for Mr. Saka to resort to malicious and misleading publications to spread cheap lies when payments of tuition fees for scholars abroad are made through the CBN and not individual staff bank accounts. One expects that Mr. Saka, a PhD candidate, would have been discerning enough not to level such cheap accusation. Since payment of tuition fees are made in Forex to institutions of study, the issue of fluctuations in exchange rate is between the Fund and the CBN with no effect whatsoever on scholars.

“Similarly, under the present dispensation (since 2022) even upkeep allowance of scholars after the first year are paid directly in foreign currency to the accounts of scholars thus eliminating future claims for bailout. The appropriate question the scholar should answer is whether he met the requirements for bailout or not.

“In any case, the Fund has already made a formal report to the Management of Federal University, Oye Ekiti on Mr. Kamal Adewole Saka’s inappropriate behaviour and defamatory and libelous publication and has demanded appropriate sanctions, failing which the Fund would not hesitate to seek redress on its own.”