President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned six iconic projects worth N2. 612 billion at the Benue State University Makurdi. They were executed by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
The executive secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono said the six projects commissioned yesterday commenced in May 2019 and were completed in April 2023.
While commending the institution for ensuring quality delivery of the projects and for sticking substantially to the terms of delivery approved by the Fund, Arc Echono said TETFund has invested over N18.83 billion in eight beneficiary institutions in Benue State in physical and infrastructure interventions between 2011 and 2021.
The president who was represented by the minister for special duties and intergovernmental affairs, Senator George Akume during the commissioning reiterated Buhari’s desire to provide the necessary support towards making educational institutions globally competitive for economic and technological development of the country.
He admonished the university to take full advantage of the facilities and make good use of them for the educational and vocational development of the students.
He said, “I am delighted to note that the Benue State University, Makurdi and other public tertiary education institutions in the state including Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University among others have not been exempted from these interventions efforts of TETFund.”
He disclosed that out of the fund provided by TETFund, N153,521,887,426.41, was used in sponsoring 20,332 lecturers for PhD and Masters programmes in foreign and local institutions, at the cost of N42,276,142,212.13, with 92 post-doctorates also sponsored at the cost of N951,568,084.80.
In his remark, the vice chancellor, Prof Joe-Tor Iorapuu, informed that from 2019 to date TETFund has spent over N9 billion for the development of the institution even as he appealed for support to enable them expand the university in content and infrastructure.
