The leadership of Association of Nigerian Students in Russia has rejected the recent announcement by the federal government on the reduction of supplementation allowances for Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholars for the 2024 academic year.
This was contained in a letter signed by the president of the association, Alabi Jeffrey and secretary general, Aniagboso Chukwuka, dated July 24, 2024 and directed to the Scholarship Board.
The federal government had announced a slash in allowances of foreign scholars who are currently studying in Moscow and Russia, citing economic hardship and fluctuations in exchange rate.
The students said those in major cities, could barely survive on $500 due to the high cost of living and that they had been requesting an increment in stipends over the last three years.
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The letter read: “The majority of the scholars live in Moscow, Petersburg and Kazan, where the cost of living is significantly rising annually.
“Such a reduction only throws more than 60 per cent of the scholars into much bigger problems, especially given that students are legally not allowed to work, and raids by the Russian intelligence in those major areas have been recorded more often in recent days than in the past.”
While noting that the decision was made without them, they said, “Such disregard for our experiences fails to reflect the realities of living conditions in our host countries. We firmly oppose this decision, which we consider unjust and detrimental to our well-being.
“The rationale provided for this reduction is unacceptable. Fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate have long been an issue; it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that supplementary funds are available to cover budget shortfalls, rather than shifting this burden onto students,” the letter read.
“In light of this, we formally write to reject this reduction, and appeal that FSB reverts to the original supplementary budget as captured in our contract, which entitles every scholar to $500 extra. We understand that, this will cause a shortfall in the 2024 budget, just as in 2023.”
The scholars in Russia also suggested that FSB pays whatever amount they have at hand while they wait for the government to outsource funds for the shortfalls in their budget.
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