Six public universities will receive a total of N18 billion from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), according to Executive Secretary Arc. Sonny Echono. This is part of the fund’s Special High Impact Intervention.
Echono provided a breakdown of the N320 billion 2023 Intervention Budget, which President Muhammadu Buhari recently approved, during a briefing on Thursday in Abuja.
Over 95% of the N320 billion total TETFund disbursement of 2023, according to him, would go directly to beneficiary tertiary institutions. He said N3 billion would be given to six selected universities, N1 billion to six polytechnics, and N1 billion to six colleges of education across the nation.
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 stated that 62% of the total disbursement—or N198 billion—represented the institutions’ annual direct disbursement, and the remaining 20%—or N64.2 billion—would be used for special disbursements.
The decision to make a Special Intervention usually rests with the Board of Trustees, whose decisions are codified in the enabling Act. Allocations are typically made on a zonal basis and are done fairly.
According to Echono, the Special High Impact Intervention aims to heavily fund-inject into a select group of tertiary institutions in order to achieve a significant turnaround through program upgrade and improvement in the teaching and learning environment.
According to Hr, among other factors, beneficiaries are chosen based on the age of the institution in relation to Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.
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He said the special impact will be given to Ibrahim Babangida University Lapai, Federal University Wukali in Taraba state, Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Imo state university of agriculture and environmental sciences, Edo state university and 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. And for CoEs , they include Plateau State COE, Federal COE,Yola, Federal COE, Zaria, Enugu State COE, Delta State COE and Taiye Solarin COE He said the other area of intervention for the special intervention is students hostels. “Many of you have seeing 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,” he said. “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.” He said there was need to implement projects in institutions within security prone areas to enhance the security of the students and teachers. Speaking on other intervention lines, Echono also noted that N500 million had been allocated to some selected COE from the six geopolitical zones for micro teaching laboratory.
