President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) sponsored annual intervention, merged projects and zonal intervention projects at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), the Airforce Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna Polytechnic and Kaduna State University (KASU).
Represented by the chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Aliyu Wammakko, he noted that, the projects at NDA gulped over N685 million, AFIT over N604 million, KASU over N491 million, and Kaduna Polytechnic over N450 million for the 2020/2021 annual intervention and merged projects.
The projects which were executed and commissioned at NDA included a Computer Based Test hall (CBT Hall), Faculty of Management and Military Science buildings.
While at AFIT, department of Cyber Security, Students Hostel of the 2020 Zonal Intervention, and Students Hostel of the 2021 Zonal Intervention were commissioned.
At Kaduna Polytechnic newly constructed Department of Railway Engineering, Classrooms for Chemical Engineering and High Grade Oxygen Plant for Medicals were commissioned.
The rector, Kaduna Polytechnic, Dr Sulaiman Umar commended TETFund and called for more interventions in the area of staff training, research and development.
“Permit me to kindly appeal to TETFund for more interventions in the areas of infrastructural development and maintenance in view of the size and age of the Polytechnic. The institution is also requesting for more enhancement in Academic staff training and sponsoring of research development as current allocation is greatly inadequate for the Polytechnic due to its numerical strength”.
In his remarks shortly after the commissioning of the projects, Senator Wamakko said, “Education as we all know plays a critical role in the socio-economic development of nations, and therefore, the commissioning of these projects today would in no small measure further enhance teaching and learning and improvement of academic standards.
“I wish to reiterate that education forms an integral part of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s agenda, hence the Federal Government would continue to provide necessary support towards making our educational institutions globally competitive for economic and technological development of the country.
“It is on record that through the support of the Federal Government, TETFund has performed exceptionally in the provision of physical infrastructure, support for academic staff training and development, book publication, 1CT, Research and Development amongst others in public tertiary educational institutions across the country.
“I am delighted to note that the Airforce Institute of Technology, Kaduna and other public tertiary educational institutions in Kaduna State have not been exempted from these intervention efforts of TETFund”.
Earlier, the commandant of the NDA, Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Yusuf, said the institution had received over N8.2 billion support from the TETFUND in the last seven years.
General Yusuf explained that about N6 billion of the money went into infrastructural development while N2.2 billion was spent on training, research and publication, library and ICT, among others.
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