The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETfund, says a total of 128 research applications will be supported with N4 billion in the recent N5 billion National Research Fund approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for research and development in the country.
TETfund also said it has so far used a total of  N7.2 billion in rescuing 1,000 of the Nigerian scholars stranded abroad, adding that government was working towards ending the problem of stranded Nigerian scholars abroad.
The Executive Secretary of TETfund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, speaking to the media at the weekend, in Abuja, said unlike in the past where the organisation’s focus was intervention on capital development, it had shifted priority to research and development, saying the new direction was in accordance with the direction of the federal administration of taking the economy to a knowledge-based one.
According to him, “about 128 applicants for the research grant have been found worthy to be supported with about N4 billion.”
Speaking on how he tackle the issue of Nigerian stranded scholars abroad, the TETfund boss, said upon resumption of office after his appointment by President Buhari, he discovered that there were some anomalies at the home institution levels where he noted that a scholar was told to proceed to school while the institution processed payment of tuition fees and other entitlements with TETFund.
Hear him: “We discovered from the records I have that when the money is released to the institutions, they will sit on it.
“Whether they are trading with the money, only God knows. It takes six months, one year or even more with scholars waiting. What other name do you call them other than stranded scholars.”
According to him, it became worrisome when the situation was reviewed and discovered that significant percentage of the affected students were at the level of institution.
He said the development necessitated the decision of the TETfund to stop payment of tuition fees of the scholars through their home institutions.