The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has assured of providing all the required Intervention fund for the provision of infrastructural and Research facilities for the newly established African University of Aviation in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Sonny Echono gave the assurance when he received the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo who led the leadership of the University of Aviation on a courtesy call to the Fund headquarters in Abuja.
Echono commended the minister for his patriotic zeal, standing up for what is right as well as his doggedness in ensuring the smooth take off the institution.
He reiterated that TETFUND shall extend the necessary intervention and special intervention Fund as well as assist in the architectural design to ensure that the university meets global standard as a special institution.
Echono however promised to communicate the request of the minister and the school management to the board of TETfund, while highlighting the importance of the institution to the country’s Aviation sector and the Nigerian economy.
On his part, the minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo appreciated the executive secretary for assisting to bring the institution to fruition as a permanent secretary in the federal ministry of education.
Keyamo who revealed that his visit was to ask for some intervention assistance from TETFUND to enable the Aviation university move to a permanent site, specification requested for intervention in infrastructural development.
In a related development, Echono extoled the invaluable contributions of Nigerian diplomats to policy formulation and development of curricular for careers in Diplomacy and International Relations, even as he assured of TETFund’s support for their foreign policy journal.
He commended the diplomats while speaking at the 2024 Annual Foreign Policy Lecture organized by the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) in Abuja recently as part of celebrations marking Nigeria’s 64th Independence anniversary.
While expressing appreciation to members of the association for their service to the nation and contribution to the development of education through their professional foreign policy journal, the Executive Secretary stated that given the rich content of the annual publication, copies would be made available in all libraries of TETFund Beneficiary Institutions offering courses in International Relations and related fields for the benefit of their students.
“I am particularly glad that ARCAN extended the gesture of inviting us to be part of this event; and to underline our collaboration in ensuring that every department of International Relations, Political Science and all students aspiring to make a career in Diplomacy or Foreign Service have access to quality journals and publications.
“That is why through TETFund’s Journal Intervention, we are going to ensure that every institution gets copies of this journal and subscribe to it,” he assured.
Arc. Echono also stated that digital copies of the journal would be made accessible to users on TETFund’s Tertiary Education Research, Applications and Services (TERAS) platform.
The Guest Speaker at the event was the President of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), His Excellency Dr. Omar Alieu Touray who spoke on the theme of the event “Consolidating Democracy and Integration in ECOWAS: The Journey So Far” with Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar as Chairman.
The lecture had in attendance Ambassadors and Heads of Missions to Nigeria, serving and retired diplomats, as well as players in Nigerian diplomacy from Independence.
