Federal, State Tertiary Institutions Get N1.83trn Grants In 13 Years To Support Infrastructure, Others- TETFUND Boss Reveals - EDU-BIZNEWS

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Sunday, February 2, 2025

Federal, State Tertiary Institutions Get N1.83trn Grants In 13 Years To Support Infrastructure, Others- TETFUND Boss Reveals



Federal and State Government owned universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria have received  worth of grants totally N1.83 trillion between 2011 and 2024 to support various infrastructural growth  researches and other educational aides on campuses , the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has revealed 

The Executive Secretary of the fund, Arc. Sonny Echono who made this known over the weekend while delivering the 34th Convocation Lecture of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, (OOU) Ago-Iwoye in Ogun State, gave the breakdown of N1, 838,747,307,222:98 (One trillion, Eight hundred and thirty-eight billion, Seven hundred and forty-seven million, Three hundred and seven thousand, Two hundred and twenty-two naira, Ninety-eight kobo to include N918.73 billion for universities, N461.06billion for the polytechnics while colleges of education gulped N458.95 billion worth of grants in the past 13 years 

The TETFUND Boss who was speaking on the convocation lecture titled TETFUND And Educational Development In Nigeria: The Treasures And The Future, explained that the grants were used to support infrastructural projects across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education that range from senate buildings, classrooms, lecture theatres, and auditoria, ICT centres, laboratories and laboratory research equipment, Libraries, workshops and hostels, among many others. 


"The Fund has equally provided scholarships to over 42 thousand scholars across institutions in Nigeria both locally and overseas, and approved nearly 150,000 academic and non-academic staff for conferences and workshops. It has further equipped and sponsored the publication of books and journals in various institutions."

"It has also provided grants to scholars and lecturers under the National Research Fund (NRF) and the Institution Based Research (IBR) grants. All these efforts are aimed at enhancing the capacity of beneficiary institutions to fulfil their mandates in nation-building and development," he disclosed 

Echono who said the fund which came from of annual direct intervention or special intervention to upgrade infrastructure or replace decayed infrastructure across public tertiarty institutions in the country for the past years 

"It is estimated that a total of over 152,838 infrastructural projects has been carried out across various public tertiary institutions from 2011 till date"

"These projects include the construction of senate buildings, lecture theatres, classrooms, hostels, offices, library buildings, laboratories, road network, water and power supply and distribution, perimeter fencing of institutions etc. All public tertiary institutions across the country are dotted with TETFund projects which bear the ubiquitous insignia of the Fund," he stated 


Academic Staff Training and Development TETFund according to him, has sponsored over 18,766 lecturers in the local Ph.D. program, as well as over 14,159 lecturers in the local master’s degree programme across the country between 2011 and year 2024.


The Fund has also sponsored well over 5,172 lecturers to overseas institutions for Ph.D. programs and over 3,541 master’s degree candidates also overseas across tertiary institutions within the same period. 

"The Fund has further supported 120,441 Lecturers in Federal and State Colleges of Education under its teaching practice supervision programmes" 

"The Fund has sponsored an estimated 19,302 academic staff across tertiary institutions in the country to foreign conferences, 4,516 non-academic staff of public tertiary institutions have also benefitted from the same sponsorship. In addition, 25,940 academic staff were sponsored to attend local conferences within the country, while about 45,005non-academic staff were sponsored by the Fund to attend local workshops across beneficiary institutions in the country", Echono further revealed 

He added that  TETFUND provided these various interventions in its effort to 
build the nations capacity, skills, and manpower need. 

"In all, the Fund has sponsored a total of 94,763 academic and non-academic staff of public tertiary institutions to local and overseas conferences between 2011 and year 2025" he further disclosed 

He recalled that TETFUND equally provided support under its special intervention programme for provision of the needed sporting facilities in addition to other support during COVID-19 period 


"Under its Special Intervention programme, the Fund provides support to beneficiary Institutions for targeted needs, and as directed by the government. Some of its Special Intervention support over the years includes NUGA, NIPOGA and NICEGA games and the N3billion now N4billion Special High Impact Programme (SHIP) to selected Universities for each geo-political zone. Another significant Special Intervention is the COVID-19 response Intervention on the research effort for producing a vaccine, the 6 Academic Publishing Centres to mention a few."

The TETFUND Scribe emphasized the need to reposition public tertiarty institutions to produce graduates that can compete globally , saying the fund is now being futuristic in terms of allocation of various grants between 2023 and 2025 to public institutions 


"In recognition of the changing times and general progress and transformation that learning, education, and technology are undergoing, the Fund is consciously adapting to these changes in its programs and activities across institutions. Developing the critical sectors of the Nation requires that we position our institutions and equip them with state-of-the-art technology and laboratory equipment needed for research activities and information technology" 


"These innovative projects are intended to ensure the improvement of tertiary education and its stand", he concluded 

A  seasoned broadcast journalist cum academic, Jamiu Folarin bagged Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Mass Communication amongst other 169 PhD graduands during the convocation ceremony 



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