FOREIGN SCHOLARSHIP TO BE SUSPENDED FOR 2 YEARS — TETFUND
Echono spoke at a public hearing organized by an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives on the alleged missing N2.3 trillion in TETFUND.
It will be recalled that the House had last Tuesday, set up the committee, headed by Oluwole Oke, to investigate the alleged abuse of N2.3 trillion generated from the Tertiary Education Tax by the Fund from 2011 to 2023.
He said it was difficult accessing foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, even though the proceeds of their tax accruals generated on their behalf by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, which is domiciled in Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
According to the Fund, the CBN always insists it sourced its forex to pay fees for scholars abroad.
Echono, urged the panel to intervene on TETFUND’s behalf, disclosing that the Fund would resort to local institutions for scholarship trainings.
He said: “We operate a system where our forex is being sold on our behalf at an official rate and we apply like anybody else to get it, sometimes it leads to additional cost.
“Currently, as I speak, we are in consultations with all our stakeholders to suspend foreign training for a year or two. This is because of the recent exchange rate adjustments, we are unable to continue based on our disbursement guideline. The money we allocated in naira cannot cover the dollar requirement for training.Those who are currently there, we now need more naira to pay for the dollar that is required for their annual fees. We are trying to put a hold.
GET THE FULL STORY: EXCHANGE RATE: Foreign scholarships to be suspended for 2yrs — TETFUND (vanguardngr.com)