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Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, has disclosed that the Federal Government through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) spent N220 billion sponsoring Nigerians for overseas training over a 10-year period, with 80 percent of the beneficiaries refusing to return to the country.

Alausa, who described the development as a disturbing trend that occurred before his appointment, said the government had discontinued the foreign training programme and redirected resources towards strengthening local institutions.

Speaking on Thursday at the inauguration of the RHV–ROBOMED Robotic Academy at Redeemer’s Health Village, Redemption City, Ogun State, the minister lamented that the huge investment in overseas training failed to deliver the expected benefits to Nigeria’s education system because most beneficiaries remained abroad after completing their programmes.

He explained that the development informed the government’s decision to suspend foreign training sponsorship and prioritise the establishment of specialised training centres within Nigerian universities.

“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.

“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,,” he said.

Alausa said the government subsequently redirected resources towards developing local training capacity, establishing 28 Centres of Excellence across 23 public and five private universities.

The minister explained that investing in domestic training facilities would enable more Nigerians to acquire specialised skills while reducing the country’s dependence on foreign institutions.

He announced that the newly inaugurated robotic surgery academy at RHV would become the 29th Centre of Excellence under TETFund.

According to him, FG 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.

Alausa also disclosed that the Federal Government had invested over N250bn in medical education infrastructure within the last two years, including the provision of simulation laboratories and rehabilitation of facilities in more than 24 medical schools.

The minister commended Nigerian medical professionals in the diaspora for contributing to the establishment of the robotic surgery academy, urging others to explore opportunities to transfer their expertise to Nigeria.

Earlier, Adedamola Dada, the Chief Executive Officer of RHV, disclosed that the academy planned to train 400 specialists within two years.

Dada said the institution had acquired two robotic systems valued at approximately $4m, with one dedicated to surgical procedures and the other to training.

He explained that the programme would cover surgeons, nurses, biomedical engineers and other healthcare professionals to support the expansion of robotic-assisted surgery across Nigeria.

The CEO appealed to the Federal Government to provide scholarships for postgraduate medical trainees participating in the programme.

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

Reporting by BusinessDay by Sodiq Ojurongbe.