TETFUND Approves N130 Billion As Zonal Intervention For Polytechnics

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) says it has approved the sum of N130 Billion as zonal intervention for each polytechnic in its 2023 intervention line.

The Director of Infrastructure, TETFUND, Buhari Mika’Ilu who disclosed this at the Fund/NBTE Sensitisation Workshop on the 2023 Zonal Intervention on Skills for Rectors and Directors of Skills in Beneficiary Polytechnics in Abuja, stated that the intervention is geared towards reinvigorating skills acquisition in polytechnics across the country.

Mika’Ilu also said that the intervention was to consolidate the efforts of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in increasing the capacities of polytechnics to deliver on their mandate, noting that it is mostly used to support institutions to meet basic requirements for accreditation.

He further revealed that since inception of the Zonal Intervention in 2016, the Fund had allocated a total sum of N52,046,079,584.7 as zonal Intervention to enlisted polytechnics.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Sonny Echono charged rectors of polytechnics to explore the innovative approach to skills development and as well device effective solutions that would enhance the quality and relevance of technical education in the institutions.

Echono emphasized that skills development and entrepreneurship represented a holistic process in which individuals in society pursue opportunities and address needs through innovation.

While applauding the Fund for actively promoting, supporting and financing skills development in the country, the Executive Secretary, National Board For Technical Education,(NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, called on polytechnic rectors to key into the formalisation of the informal sector in order to use technology to drive the sector.