Each beneficiary Institution which is a university is being allocated N642,848,138 while the polytechnic gets N396,780,086; meanwhile, N447,758,804 goes to each College of Education for the year 2022, which totally run into several billions of naira.
The disbursement of the direct intervention funds approved by the presidency to public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in the country has commenced by The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Each beneficiary Institution which is a university is being allocated N642,848,138 while the polytechnic gets N396,780,086; meanwhile, N447,758,804 goes to each College of Education for the year 2022, which totally run into several billions of naira.
The heads of the beneficiary institutions on Monday received the allocation papers at the National Universities Commission (NUC) from the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Sunny Echono.
Echono, while presenting the document noted that, the desire to develop human capital to service the various sectors of the Nigerian economy primarily informed the government’s investment in the education sector.
According to him, the government is not unmindful of the deficit and decay in the tertiary sub-sector, noting that this also informed the establishment of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund; which was initially referred to as Education Tax Fund in 1993 and later metamorphosed into Tertiary Education Trust Fund in 2011.
The TETFund Boss equally lamented the instances of distressed or non-performing projects which according to him was becoming rampant and disturbing.
He noted that the fund had about seven non-performing/distressed projects in the University of Port Harcourt, six in Enugu State University, a total of five in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, four in Taraba State University; four in Kaduna State University and one at The Alvan Ikoku College of Education.
“This phenomenon becomes even more worrisome when viewed alongside the problem of un-accessed funds. We are mindful of the intricate variables in project management and delivery as well as the constraints created by our own internal policies and are ensuring that we review our processes where required but we will also demand from beneficiary institutions accountability and sanctions where needed.
“I will in the coming weeks be engaging beneficiary institutions who have these serious problems with the view of bringing the projects to speedy completion and use,” he noted.