About 226 Varsities Get N300bn Tertiary Education Fund

In a bid to sustain the tempo of human and infrastructural development in the nation’s tertiary institutions, the Tertiary Education Fund (TetFund) has this year disbursed over N300 billion this year to about 226 tertiary institutions in the country for staff training and development of various infrastructure.

Speaking in Asaba at an audit and accounts reconciliatory meeting with the benefiting institutions in Delta State, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, TetFund, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, reiterated the agency’s commitment to its statutory mandates towards the overall development of the country’s tertiary education sub-sector.

He noted that TetFund was committed to building the education sector through training of the academic staff and the building of projects such that would guarantee improved and conducive teaching and learning environment.

He disclosed that in 10 years of TetFund, the agency has more than 10,000 projects to its credit across the various tertiary institutions in the country.

Speaking about efforts in academic staff training and development, the Tetfund chairman said in the past 10 years, Tetfund had successfully trained more than 30,000 lecturers across the country for masters and PhD programmes locally and internationally.

He added that in 2021 alone, the overall budget of Tetfund is about N300 billion with each university accessing overall budget of about N900 million; each polytechnic will receive in excess of N800 million, while the colleges of education will access in excess of N700 million.

He said the country had about 226 tertiary institutions presently.

He further added that for academic staff training and development, each university will access about N150 million, Polytechnic and colleges of education N120 million each this year.

While noting that TetFund placed high premium on academic staff training and development and was determined not to let down the standard, he said, “Yes, we spend more on physical infrastructure without which lecturers will not operate in conducive learning atmosphere.

“For this reason, physical infrastructure takes up of about two-thirds of our annual intervention but we place our premium on training of lecturers and that is why you have so many beneficiaries of our training programme here and we are here to see you physically and hear from you.

Also speaking, the Head, Academic Staff Training and Development, TetFund, Muhammad Sulaiman, stated that no fewer than 1,127 lecturers drawn from nine tertiary institutions in Delta State have been trained by Tetfund at the cost of over N5 billion between 2015 to date.

Sulaimansaidthe visit was to reconcile and harmonise records with beneficiaries of the programmer and also to interact with returnee scholars to tap from their experience particularly those that have travelled overseas in the period under review.

He revealed that from inception, Tetfund has invested over N161 billion for staff training and over N32 billion for conference attendance and teaching practice and out of this investment.

He said Tetfund has trained more than 30,000 academic staff across the country both local and international.