6 Varsities Get N18bn From TETFund’s 2023 High Impact Intervention

Six public universities will receive a total of N3 billion each from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) as part of its Special High Impact Intervention.

This was said Wednesday in Abuja at a news conference by Mr. Sonny Echono, executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

According to a breakdown of the N320 billion 2023 Intervention Budget provided by President Muhammadu Buhari, N1 billion will be given to each of the country’s six polytechnics and six colleges of education, with over 95% of the total N320 billion 2023 TETFund disbursement going directly to the beneficiary tertiary institutions.

According to Echono, the remaining 5% of the budget would go for personnel wages and benefits, project oversight, and zone capital projects.

According to him, 198 billion Naira, or 62% of the overall disbursement, represented the institutions’ yearly direct disbursement, while 64.2 billion Naira, or 20%, would be used for special disbursement.

The decision to make a special intervention typically rests with the Board of Trustees, for whom the enabling Act stipulates that allocations must be made equitably and on a zonal basis.

It aims to heavily fund-inject certain tertiary institutions in order to turn around their fortunes through program upgrades and enhancements to the teaching and learning environment.

The decision to make a special intervention typically rests with the Board of Trustees, for whom the enabling Act stipulates that allocations must be made equitably and on a zonal basis.

In order to achieve a significant turnaround through program upgrades and enhancements to the teaching and learning environment, it intends to significantly pump funds into a limited group of higher schools.

In addition to other factors, the recipients are chosen based on the institution’s age in relation to Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.

According to Echono, the distribution plan calls for N3 billion to be given to each institution in the six geopolitical zones, while N1 billion will be given to each polytechnic and College of Education in each of the six geopolitical zones.

The disbursement plan, Echono said, is to give each university in the six geo-political zones N3 billion, while N1 billion would go to each polytechnic and each College of Education from each of the six geo-political zones.

He said, “For this year, the special impact will be given to six universities and the six universities are; From the North Central zone we have Ibrahim Babangida University Lapai, from the north east zone we have Federal University Wukari in Taraba State, from the north west we have Federal University Birnin Kebbi, in the south east we have Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences while in the South South we have Edo State University and South West we have Federal University of Technology Akure, Ondo State.”

The beneficiary 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 N1 billion each.

“Also, 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,” Echono said.

“As I said, last year, six universities benefitted. We zone six every year and pick one from each zone. Next year, another six will be picked and the same applies. You also noticed that there is a balance between the state and federal institution and that is how we spread it.

Still on the High Impact, we also do the same for Polytechnics and the colleges of education. So we have N1 billion each for six polytechnics and N1 billion each for six colleges of education, specifically for high impact projects. Under this Special impact project you can also see that we have 18 different states so it’s quite a big development to achieve,” he said.

He said the other area of intervention for the special intervention is students’ hostels.

“Many of you have seen deplorable accommodations our students live in. For a number of years now we commence these interventions and we will encourage schools because we believe the hostels are one of the areas where private sector funding can be attracted.

“Last year we released intervention in 20 institutions and the hostels have been completed. Another 20 institutions are ready this year, that is one of the importance of the special impact project.

The TETfund boss 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.

“So we are implementing strategies to enhance security in institutions,” he added.

On special disbursement, Echono said that N6 billion had been allocated to institutions in insecurity prone areas, especially those institutions with internal security challenges as well as institutions with cases of abductions.

He said there was a need to implement projects in institutions with security challenges to enhance the security of the students and teachers.

Speaking on other intervention lines, Echono disclosed that N500 million had been allocated to some selected COE from the six geopolitical zones for micro-teaching laboratories.