TETFund To Establish Multipurpose Laboratories In Varsities

Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has inaugurated an ad-hoc committee on the establishment of central multipurpose laboratories in select Nigerian universities.

The executive secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, who inaugurated the committee yesterday in Abuja, said the move was part of efforts to provide vital infrastructure to aid research in Nigeria.

He said it is universally accepted that innovative research and its commercialisation is clearly the driver of economic growth and prosperity in the contemporary world.

“Thus, it is imperative to make conscious efforts to not only develop our human capital but to also provide research infrastructure to support innovative R&D on a sustainable basis. It is indeed a key prerequisite for accelerated national development and global competitiveness,” Echono said.

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The TETFund boss said the agency is deploying billions of naira to fund research programmes and projects with a view to deepening the institutionalisation of research and development to tackle national challenges.

He said, “You will recall that the Fund has so far awarded a total of 727 research grants to researchers from public tertiary institutions at the cost of over N18 billion under the National Research Fund (NRF) to undertake applied research in various academic disciplines.

“It was observed that some of these scholars who have benefited from the NRF grants have often requested that, to complete the execution of the Research Projects may require them to cross international borders to access certain facilities/equipment due to lack of requisite research facilities in their institutions,” Echono said.

Echono said the committee, which has former vice chancellor of University of Ibadan (UI), Emeritus Professor Olufemi Bamiro, as chairperson, has one month to submit its report.

In his acceptance speech, Bamiro, who commended Echono for setting up the committee, expressed the readiness of the team to deliver on the assigned task.