By Felix Khanoba
The Federal Government has announced a major shift in its approach to education funding, replacing what it considers low-value foreign scholarship spending with increased investment in research, innovation and academic excellence within Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in Abuja while unveiling the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize, a new annual programme backed by ₦365 million to reward outstanding academic research, innovation and intellectual excellence across Nigerian universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education.
The development comes against the backdrop of the government’s decision to discontinue its funding of the Bilateral Education Agreement scholarship scheme, which Alausa said had become difficult to justify in cases where the same courses and academic capacity were already available in Nigeria.
The minister revealed that the government had once been presented with a proposal to spend ₦650 million in one year to sponsor about 150 Nigerian students to Morocco, prompting a review of the value derivable from the arrangement.
According to him, the students would have been required to spend their first year learning French before commencing their academic programmes, despite the availability of the courses in Nigerian institutions.
“I felt this was not morally right. Number one, we have all those courses in Nigeria. Number two, they were going to spend the first year learning French before they started the programme. And number three, if we put N650 million to support students in Nigeria, it will support thousands of them,” Alausa said.
He added: “So, the bilateral agreement was not making sense to us as a government. It was a way to waste government funds. And this President will not waste any funds, any public funds.”
Alausa, however, clarified that the policy did not amount to a ban on Nigerians receiving scholarships from foreign governments, stressing that countries willing to continue sponsoring Nigerian students remained free to do so.
He explained that the BEA scheme was conceived at a time when Nigeria lacked capacity in some specialised academic fields, but argued that the country had since developed substantial capacity across its universities and other tertiary institutions.
“We have built enormous capacities in our tertiary institutions, universities and colleges. Now we are asking where we are sending students.
“We are sending students to Algeria, which is a French-speaking country, to study English. We are sending students to Morocco, a French-speaking country, to study journalism and psychology,” he said.
Rather than continue committing public resources to such programmes, the minister said the government was seeking to channel funding into initiatives capable of producing long-term value, particularly research, innovation and commercialisation.
He said the newly introduced National Laureate Prize is central to that strategy, with the government earmarking ₦365 million annually to identify and reward exceptional academic work with potential for industrial application, enterprise creation and national development.
Alausa said the initiative was designed to correct what he described as inadequate national recognition for researchers and scholars whose work could help address Nigeria’s developmental challenges.
“For many years, our national education and reward system has not sufficiently celebrated the remarkable work taking place in our universities and other tertiary institutions.
“Across the country, young Nigerians and academics are conducting research, developing solutions, creating new technologies and generating ideas capable of addressing some of our most pressing developmental challenges,” he said.
The prize will recognise outstanding undergraduate dissertations with commercial potential, exceptional master’s theses and doctoral research with clear industrial or developmental applications.
It will initially focus on six thematic areas: engineering and technology; medicine and health sciences; arts and social sciences; agriculture; law; and teaching innovation.
Special awards will also honour distinguished Nigerians whose contributions exemplify courage, professionalism and service to humanity.
One of the proposed awards is the Dr Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation, named after the late physician who became widely recognised for her courage during Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak.
The minister said the programme would be open to students and researchers from universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education, regardless of ownership.
Entries will pass through institutional, zonal and national screening stages, with emphasis on merit and broad representation. Students will not submit entries directly; participating institutions will first select their strongest projects before forwarding them for further assessment.
To strengthen credibility, supervisors and external examiners will be required to digitally affirm that submitted projects were genuinely undertaken by the students concerned.
Alausa also warned that the credibility of the award would depend on the integrity of its selection process, promising that political, institutional and personal interests would not determine the winners.
“Excellence must be the determining factor,” he said.
The initiative will also be linked to the Nigerian Education Repository and Databank, NERD, to improve the accessibility, integrity and long-term preservation of academic works.
Alausa said the ultimate objective was to transform Nigeria’s education system from one focused primarily on certificates into one that produces solutions, innovations, enterprises and measurable economic value.
“We want our researchers to see a clear pathway from academic research to industrial application, enterprise, innovation and national development.
“Leaders in the country matters, scholars in the country matters, the researchers in the country matters, and the rigour of our laboratories and intellectual institutions deserves national celebration,” he said.
Also speaking, Chairman of the National Laureate Prize Committee, Prof. Sani Sambo, explained that the awards would operate under two broad categories within each of the six thematic areas.
He said the overall “best of the best” would receive the star prize, while other exceptional entries would receive thematic awards.
On his part, Chief Executive Officer of NERD, Tunji Ariyomo, said the programme would cover tertiary institutions nationwide, adding that supervisors would play an important role in ensuring the authenticity and integrity of submissions.
