Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echonu addressing the the press in Abuja. April 13, 2023. Photo: Daniel Adejo/Radio Nigeria
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has allocated N30bn for high impact projects in 18 tertiary institutions across the country.
The allocation is part of the over N320bn 2023 TETFund intervention approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Presenting the breakdown, the Executive Secretary of the Fund Sonny Echono, said 6 Universities, one from each Geo-political Zone of the country is entitled to N3bn, while 6 polytechnics and colleges of education are entitled to N1bn respectively.
The Universities include Ibrahim Babangida University Lapai for North Central, Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Federal University Birnin-Kebbi, Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Edo State University and Federal University of Technology, Akure.
While the polytechnics are; Federal Polytechnics Offa, Federal Polytechnic Gombe, Federal Polytechnic Kabo Kano State, Anambra State Polytechnic, Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny and Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora are to get N1billion each.
For the Colleges of Education (COE), “Plateau State COE, Federal COE Yola, Federal COE Zaria, Enugu State COE, Delta State COE, and Taiye Solarin COE are to get N1 billion each,” he said.
What the funds will address
He explained that the high impact projects that are peculiar to the needs of the benefitting institutions are tied to projects such as the construction of Senate buildings to construction to student’s hostels.
Mr Echono disclosed that the Fund has also allocated N12bn for the completion of abandoned projects in higher institutions.
Echono hinted that N198 billion was disbursed under annual direct intervention to universities representing 62% of the budget while special disbursements took 20.06% amounting to N64.2 billion, noting that this category include Special High Impact Project, security infrastructure, completion of distressed projects, which he said gulped N12 billion, construction of micro teaching laboratories and funding of teaching practice among others.
The TETFund Executive Secretary further revealed that the sum of N32 billion would be disbursed for designated projects including Research and Innovative Fund, Institutionalisation of Research and Development (R&D) and Assistance for Global Research Centre located at University of Ibadan among others.
The TETFund executive secretary further said the Fund is aware of the challenges facing institutions, especially the issue of people targeting academic centres, kidnapping children and disrupting academic activities which necessitated the allocation of N6 billion for security in selected institutions.
“So we are implementing strategies to enhance security in the institution,” he highlighted.
Speaking on other intervention lines, Echono disclosed that N500 million had been allocated to some selected colleges of education from the six geopolitical zones for micro-teaching laboratories.
Reporting by Daniel Adejo; Editing by Muzha Kucha and Julian Osamoto