The Federal Government has committed ₦8bn to clear outstanding obligations owed to Nigerian students left stranded abroad following the discontinuation of the Bilateral Education Agreement scholarship scheme, with the Education Minister confirming that half of the amount has already been disbursed.

Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television, stating that the remaining ₦4bn would receive approval within two weeks.

"We've paid four billion of it. We're disbursing the four billion now. This additional four billion will be approved. I've been in constant communication with the Minister of Finance. It will be approved in the next two weeks. They will be settled," Alausa stated.

The BEA was a long standing diplomatic scholarship programme that partnered Nigeria with countries including China, Russia, Algeria, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt and Serbia to train Nigerian students in specialised fields such as engineering, medicine and aeronautics. Annual government spending on the scheme grew from ₦3.2bn in 2022 to ₦8bn in 2025 before the Federal Government formally scrapped it in April 2025, affecting more than 1,200 students abroad.

The crisis for students predated the cancellation. From September 2023 to August 2024, no payments reached scholars. When disbursements resumed in September 2024, stipends had been reduced by 56%, with some students reportedly evicted from hostels or barred from academic services due to unpaid fees.

Alausa defended the decision to end the scheme, citing widespread abuse that had distorted the programme far beyond its original diplomatic purpose. He revealed that one of the first files presented to him upon assumption of office requested ₦650m to send 60 students to Morocco, with courses listed including a placement for a Nigerian student to study English in a French speaking country.

"650 million for 60 students? I was looking at the courses that they were going to Morocco for. We have a Nigerian scholarship given to a student who will go study English in Morocco, a French speaking country. Had so many of those courses, psychology, sociology, zoology, botany," Alausa disclosed.

He further revealed that certain beneficiaries were simultaneously enrolled in Nigerian universities while collecting BEA funds.

"We also had incidences of kids who got this scholarship, that they're studying in Nigerian universities, getting the money. So, we stopped it," the minister added.

Notably, a ₦1.7bn allocation for the BEA appeared in the 2026 Appropriation Bill, but the government clarified that the provision was a procedural rollover and did not signal a policy reversal.

On the broader question of student emigration, Alausa dismissed concerns that Nigeria was experiencing a significant outbound student movement, arguing that figures cited from 2023 were outdated and did not reflect the current state of the country's tertiary institutions.