The growing public pressure over the abandoned Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship crisis appears to be yielding results as the Federal Government has approved N4 billion for the payment of allowances owed to stranded Nigerian students studying abroad under the scheme.
The development comes months after emotional testimonies from affected scholars in countries including Russia, Serbia, Venezuela and Morocco sparked outrage across social media, with many students accusing the government of abandoning them after sending them overseas through a federal scholarship programme.
The issue gained wider national attention after several viral videos surfaced online showing students lamenting hunger, unpaid stipends, homelessness and worsening living conditions abroad, despite repeated assurances from the Federal Government that existing beneficiaries of the BEA programme would continue receiving support even after the scheme was discontinued for new applicants.
Reports available to Nigeria Startup News on Sunday show that the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, confirmed that the first tranche of the funds had now been approved to clear part of the outstanding backlog owed to the students.
According to him, the release forms part of the N8 billion budgeted by the Federal Government this year for the remaining scholars currently under the programme.
“The Federal Ministry of Finance has approved N4 billion to pay the first tranche, and I am working with the Minister of Finance to settle the remaining N4 billion. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, they will receive all their allowances for 2025 and 2026,” Alausa told Punch.
“I share and sympathise with them. We are working day and night to ensure they get the funds. Our commitment is that existing students will be fully funded.”
The latest approval marks a major shift in the prolonged controversy surrounding the BEA scholarship programme, which Nigeria Startup News has closely reported over the past year.
In 2025, the Federal Government officially announced the discontinuation of the BEA scholarship scheme for new students, citing what it described as inefficiency, poor value for money and increasing pressure on public finances.
At the time, Alausa argued that spending billions of naira funding a limited number of students abroad was difficult to justify when Nigerian universities and tertiary institutions required urgent investment.
The minister had revealed that the government was expected to spend nearly N9 billion on about 1,200 students under the programme in 2025 alone.
“In 2024, when I assumed office, I was asked to approve N650m for 60 students going to Morocco under the BEA programme. I refused. It’s not fair to Nigerian students,” he said.
The government later redirected part of the scholarship resources towards local education interventions, including grants for medical students and technical education programmes within Nigeria.
Despite the cancellation of new admissions into the scheme, the Federal Government repeatedly assured that all existing scholars would continue to enjoy full support until the completion of their studies abroad.
However, months after those assurances, many beneficiaries claimed they had gone for over a year without receiving stipends, leaving them stranded in foreign countries.
The situation escalated earlier this year after disturbing videos from affected students began circulating online.
In one of the videos, Nigerian scholars in Russia accused the government of neglect and warned that the worsening hardship was pushing some students into dangerous survival conditions.
A fifth-year medical student in Rostov said many students had been forced into extreme situations just to survive.
“We have been forced into abject poverty, sending boys into menial jobs at construction sites and girls into prostitution. We were last paid in September 2024, and since then, we have not received anything. We are hungry and cannot concentrate on our studies,” the student said.
The allegations triggered widespread reactions online, especially after claims emerged that some students were unable to pay rent, buy food or access healthcare.
In Serbia, another Nigerian scholar, Irouma Obodo, said many students had resorted to side hustles and informal labour just to remain in school.
“We have not been paid for a long time. I have been here for three years and was paid for only one year. People survive through small jobs. I braid hair and run my hair braiding business to get by,” she said.
Students in Venezuela also accused the Nigerian government of abandoning them while other African countries continued supporting their own scholars abroad.
“It is only Nigerians that are abandoned. Other countries like Mozambique, Burkina Faso, and Brazil send delegates to check on their students and pay them, but no one comes from Nigeria,” one of the students said.
The scholar added that students were informed that delays in payment were linked to budgetary and administrative complications involving capital expenditure allocations.
The controversy also revived earlier concerns raised by Nigerian students in Morocco, whose complaints about unpaid stipends and hardship first gained national attention in January after videos shared online by activist Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM).
At the time, students alleged that some scholars were facing homelessness and lacked medical support due to prolonged delays in payment.
Reacting to the allegations then, the Federal Ministry of Education denied claims that officially recognised BEA beneficiaries had been abandoned.
In a statement signed by the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Boriowo Folasade, the government maintained that payments had been made up to the 2024 budget year and that any outstanding delays were due to fiscal constraints.
The ministry also insisted that discussions were ongoing between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance to resolve the issue.
The newly approved N4 billion appears to be part of those efforts.
According to Alausa, discussions are already ongoing to secure the remaining balance needed to fully settle the backlog owed to the students.
“The total budget for this year was N8 billion to fund the remaining students currently in training. If we invest N8 billion in the education sector locally, we will get more results, but this remains a government obligation,” the minister stated.
He added that the remaining balance is expected to be released within the next four weeks if ongoing engagements with the Ministry of Finance are successful.
Nigeria Startup News reports that for many of the affected students, the latest approval may offer temporary relief after months of uncertainty, hardship and public appeals for intervention.
