TETFund Spent N220bn on Overseas Training, 80% Beneficiaries Stayed Abroad, Alausa Says

The Federal Government spent N220 billion through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) on overseas training for Nigerians over 10 years, and 80 percent of the beneficiaries did not return to the country. Minister of Education Tunji Alausa disclosed this on Thursday at the inauguration of the RHV-ROBOMED Robotic Academy at Redeemer’s Health Village, Redemption City, Ogun State.

Alausa said the trend occurred before his appointment and described it as disturbing. He said the government had stopped the foreign training programme and redirected resources to local institutions.

Foreign training stopped

“I’ll tell you some bad statistics that happened before I got here. Over 10 years, TETFund invested N220bn in sending people abroad to go and train. And guess what? 80 percent of those people did not come back to Nigeria,” he said.

“We said, no, we cannot continue to work on that money. But immediately, I said this foreign programme, foreign training, it was stopped. And we stopped it immediately,” Alausa said.

He said the government redirected resources to developing local training capacity, with 28 Centres of Excellence across 23 public and five private universities. The newly inaugurated robotic surgery academy at RHV will become the 29th Centre of Excellence under TETFund.

Local centres, medical training

Alausa said the government would provide financial support for eligible medical professionals undergoing specialist training at the academy. “What we are going to do is that we will make this part of the TETFund-funded Centre of Excellence. Any student that is going to go will be completely funded by TETFund. I am not standing before you here to act as a politician. This is what we have to do,” he said.

He also disclosed that the Federal Government had invested over N250 billion in medical education infrastructure in the last two years. The investment covered simulation laboratories and rehabilitation of facilities in more than 24 medical schools.

Alausa commended Nigerian medical professionals in the diaspora for contributing to the robotic surgery academy. He urged others to explore opportunities to transfer their expertise to Nigeria.

Robotic academy targets 400 specialists

Adedamola Dada, Chief Executive Officer of RHV, said the academy planned to train 400 specialists within two years. He said the institution had acquired two robotic systems valued at approximately $4 million. One is dedicated to surgical procedures and the other to training.

Dada said the programme would cover surgeons, nurses, biomedical engineers and other healthcare professionals to support the expansion of robotic-assisted surgery across Nigeria. He appealed to the Federal Government to provide scholarships for postgraduate medical trainees in the programme.

Alausa assured the institution of government support. He stressed that building domestic medical capacity would provide more sustainable benefits than continued dependence on overseas training.