The Federal Government has pledged to settle outstanding obligations totaling N8 billion for Nigerian students under the now-scrapped Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship. Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, confirmed that N4 billion has already been disbursed, with the remaining N4 billion slated for approval and disbursement within the next two weeks.

Alausa stated that the BEA scheme was riddled with fraud and abuse, leading to its cancellation. He cited an instance where he was asked to approve N650 million for 60 students to study in Morocco, with one course being English in a French-speaking country.

The minister further explained that the BEA was originally designed as a diplomatic tool for specialized training in critical fields such as engineering, medicine, and aeronautics. However, over the years, it evolved into a general subsidy for overseas education, deviating from its intended purpose.

Instances of beneficiaries studying in Nigerian universities while receiving BEA funds were also highlighted as a reason for the scheme's termination. The BEA program, established through diplomatic agreements with countries like China, Russia, Algeria, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt, and Serbia, had seen Nigeria's budget for servicing it grow from N3.2 billion in 2022 to N8 billion in 2025.

The crisis for students predated the formal cancellation, with no payments made from September 2023 to August 2024. Even when a disbursement occurred in September 2024, stipends were reportedly slashed by over 56 percent. Some students faced eviction from hostels or barred from university services due to unpaid fees.

The Federal Government formally scrapped the scheme in April 2025, impacting over 1,200 students studying abroad. A fresh N1.7 billion allocation for the program in the 2026 Appropriation Bill was clarified as a procedural rollover, not a policy reversal.