Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) is set to disburse a total of N3 billion each to six public universities under its Special High Impact Intervention.
The executive secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Mr Sonny Echono, stated this during a press conference in Abuja yesterday.
Giving a breakdown on the 2023 Intervention Budget of N320 billion, recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, he said N1 billion each, will be given to six polytechnics and six colleges of education across the country, while saying that over 95 per cent of the N320 billion total TETFund’s disbursement of 2023 would go directly to beneficiary tertiary institutions.
Echono said the remaining five per cent of the allocation would be used for staff salaries and allowances, project monitoring and zonal capital projects.
He said that 62 percent of the total disbursement (representing N198 billion) constituted the institutions’ annual direct disbursement, while 20 percent of the disbursement (representing N64.2 billion) would be used for special disbursement.
The special intervention is usually at the discretion of the Board of Trustees for which allocations are zonal-based and are done equitably by the Board as enshrined in the enabling Act.
It seeks to massively inject funds into selected tertiary institutions to achieve a major turnaround through programme upgrade and improvement in the teaching and learning environment.
The beneficiaries are also selected based on the age of the institution per geo-political zones of Nigeria among other criteria.
The disbursement plan, Echono said, is to give each university in the six geo-political zones N3 billion, while N1 billion would go to each polytechnic and each College of Education from each of the six geo-political zones.
He said, “For this year, the special impact will be given to six universities and the six universities are; From the North Central zone we have Ibrahim Babangida University Lapai, from the north east zone we have Federal University Wukari in Taraba State, from the north west we have Federal University Birnin Kebbi, in the south east we have Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences while in the South South we have Edo State University and South West we have Federal University of Technology Akure, Ondo State.”
The beneficiary polytechnics are; “Federal Polytechnics Offa, Federal Polytechnic Gombe, Federal Polytechnic Kabo, Kano State, Anambra State Polytechnic, Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny and Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora are to get N1 billion each.
“Also, Plateau State COE, Federal COE, Yola, Federal COE, Zaria, Enugu State COE, Delta State COE and Taiye Solarin COE are to get N1 billion each,” Echono said.
“As I said, last year, six universities benefitted. We zone six every year and pick one from each zone. Next year, another six will be picked and the same applies. You also noticed that there is a balance between the state and federal institution and that is how we spread it.
“Still on the High Impact, we also do the same for Polytechnics and the colleges of education. So we have N1 billion each for six polytechnics and N1 billion each for six colleges of education, specifically for high impact projects. Under this Special impact project you can also see that we have 18 different states so it’s quite a big development to achieve,” he said.
He said the other area of intervention for the special intervention is students’ hostels.
“Many of you have seen deplorable accommodations our students live in. For a number of years now we commence these interventions and we will encourage schools because we believe the hostels are one of the areas where private sector funding can be attracted.
“Last year we released intervention in 20 institutions and the hostels have been completed. Another 20 institutions are ready this year, that is one of the importance of the special impact project.”
The TETfund boss further said the Fund is aware of the challenges facing institutions, especially the issue of people targeting academic centres, kidnapping children and disrupting academic activities.
“So we are implementing strategies to enhance security in institutions,” he added.
On special disbursement, Echono said that N6 billion had been allocated to institutions in insecurity prone areas, especially those institutions with internal security challenges as well as institutions with cases of abductions.
He said there was a need to implement projects in institutions with security challenges to enhance the security of the students and teachers.
Speaking on other intervention lines, Echono disclosed that N500 million had been allocated to some selected COE from the six geopolitical zones for micro-teaching laboratories.
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