Niger Gov Charges Tertiary Schools On Alternative Funding

Niger State governor, Mohammed Bago has asked tertiary institutions owned by the state to look inward and seek for funding instead of waiting for the government to subsidize their funding.

He asked them at a meeting held with the heads of the state-owned tertiary institutions in government house, Minna at the weekend.

The governor said tertiary institutions must be proactive in the development of their institutions.

The governor said that the institutions should have initiatives that would attract fundings from donor agencies and other organizations.

He said the government would rather give scholarships to indigenes of the state than to give subsidy to tertiary education .

Bago said there was the need to know how much the institutions are generating and directed the schools to come up with ways to lobby for interventions from  statutory organisations and  projects to their institutions.

The governor said the public sector cannot take care of education again, hence the need for funding of tertiary education to be private sector driven.

He urged the heads of the institutions to be financially disciplined and transparent, since what the institutions generates is not known to the government

While urging organizations in the state to be alive with corporate social responsibility, Bago said the state government will deploy ICT to make education interesting, through programmes and tutorials online.

In their separate remarks, the permanent secretary of the ministry of Tertiary Education Science and Technology, Dr. Musa Abubakar Sadeeq and the provost, College of Education, Minna, Prof. Yakubu Auna said that they have been challenged by the governor and are going to close the gaps identified by him.