Tripoli PM Aldabaiba closes 25 embassies, suspends overseas education scholarships and limits overseas conference participation – as part of hard currency savings drive

As part of his drive to protect the foreign exchange value of the Libyan dinar, Tripoli based Libyan Prime Minister, Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba, is reducing his government’s hard currency spending by closing embassies, suspending overseas state education scholarships and limiting overseas participation in conferences by state officials.

The announcements were made during a televised expanded meeting at the National Oil Corporation (NOC) Tuesday. The Tripoli government said the meeting was held to discuss ‘‘enhancing disclosure and adopting new measures to ensure transparency in oil sector contracts, as well as reducing the impact of parallel spending (by the eastern Libyan administration) on the (FX) value of the Libyan dinar’’.

Whilst most of the time in the one-and-a-half-hour meeting was used in discussing matters related to the NOC (fuel barter payments, fuel distribution and mitigating its smuggling, private sector NOC contracts), in passing, Aldabaiba mentioned the above hard currency cuts.

Closing diplomatic missions
Yesterday Aldabaiba indeed issued decree 298/2025 closing 25 diplomatic missions and transferring their affairs to nearby states. The 25 closed diplomatic missions and the countries their affairs are transferred to are:

1. Vatican – transferred to Italy
2. Albania – transferred to Italy
3. Panama – transferred to Venezuela
4. Nicaragua – to Venezuela
5. Sant Lucia – to Brazil
6. Chile – to Argentina
7. Botswana – to South Africa
8. Namibia – to South Africa
9. Lesotho – to South Africa
10. São Tomé and Príncipe – to Cameroon
11. Seychelles – to Cameroon
12. Benin – to Nigeria
13. Guinea Conakry – to Nigeria
14. Mont Verde – to Mauritania
15. Togo – to Ghana
16. Gambia – to Senegal
17. Burundi – to Uganda
18. Democratic Congo – to Uganda
19. Burkina Faso – to Mali
20. Malawi – to Mozambique
21. Sri Lanka – Bangladesh
22. Thailand – Malaysia
23. Vietnam – Malaysia
24. Azerbaijan – Kazakhstan
25. Turkmenistan – Kazakhstan

In his NOC meeting, Aldabaiba noted how overseas postings were much sought after and how many Libyans who were posted overseas also illegally held parallel state jobs at home. Some would shuttle back and forth, maintaining both jobs, he commented jokingly

Ending overseas education scholarships
Similarly, by virtue of yesterday’s decree 183/2025, Aldabaiba suspended all state-sponsored overseas education scholarships. The budget for this will be used to establish the National Electronic Library project instead. Decree 183/2025 read:

Article (1)

Scholarships for study abroad shall be suspended as of the date of issuance of this decision.

Article (2)

All those currently sent abroad to study shall be obligated to complete their study period in accordance with the approved scholarship regulations. Any additional extension for any reason is prohibited. Resolutions

Article (3)

Financial allocations resulting from the suspension of scholarships shall be transferred to the budget to support domestic scientific research and shall be allocated entirely to support the National Electronic Library project, contributing to enhancing access to knowledge and scientific research resources for all students and researchers.

LD 500 million spent on overseas scholarships
At the NOC meeting Aldabaiba noted that about half-a-billion dinars was being spent on overseas scholarships. He complained some students were spending 10 years completing a master’s degree and some spend 15 years completing a PhD overseas. He declared that he had not issued a single overseas scholarship. He complained that Libya had its own high schools, higher education institutes and universities, which it should use. He said he wanted to support domestic education institutions with the money saved.

.

Aldabaiba publicly holds NOC to account over its budget spending – ‘‘the public has the right to know how money is spent’’