Infrastructure decay: TETFUND releases N1.6trn to 220 tertiary institutions
…Financed 152,838 infrastructure projects
…Plans N500bn budget in 2022
…Senate Committee backs TETFUND Taxpayers Forum
Alao M. Oluwaseyi
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has announced the release of N1.67 trillion to 220 tertiary institutions between 2010 and 2020.
This was disclosed by the Chairman TETFUND, Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim-Imam during the 3rd Edition of Taxpayers Forum in Lagos yesterday.
Alhaji Kashim stated that the amount was disbursed to public tertiary institutions including Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education across the six geopolitical zones of the country during the period of 10 years. The breakdown shows that Universities received N732.13 billion representing 50 per cent of total amount allocated to tertiary institutions during the period.This comprises of 43 federal universities and 43 state-owned universities. Also, 65 Polytechnics received N499.12 billion while 69 Colleges of Education received N439.57 billion from TETFUND between 2010 and 2020.
Areas of intervention funded by TETFUND annually during the period include physical infrastructure/upgrade, scholarship for academic staff, library development, Institution based research (IBR), Manuscript development, Academic research journal, project maintenance, information technology support, Entrepreneurship centres, equipment fabrication and teaching practice. Also Special/Designated intervention by TETFUND includes Special High Impact Intervention, National Research Fund, Disaster Recovery and Higher Education Book Development Fund.
In defence of the amount spent during interaction with journalists,the Chairman said the proactive roles by the monitoring department of TETFUND helped to ensure quality of projects funded and elimination of abandoned projects.
“We have no record of projects funded and abandoned since inception,” he noted.
The Chairman assured that the board of TETFUND is set to raise the budget for 2022 to N500 billion from N300 billion approved for 2021 to increase fund of intervention projects in tertiary institutions.
The Executive Secretary, TETFUND Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro in his presentation explained that Infrastructure received special attention as a result of decay and collapse across public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.To address the decay, he disclosed that 16,982 various infrastructure projects were funded across the country between January and December 2020.
“Considering the projects carried out since inception, based on annual allocation to institutions over the years (2011-2021), it is estimated that a total of over 152,838 various infrastructure projects have been carried out across various public tertiary institutions,” he said.
These projects according to Bogoro include construction of lecture theatres, classrooms, hostels, offices, laboratories, road networks and fencing of institutions in different parts of the country.
He disclosed that, the Fund sponsored 10,632 lecturers in the local Ph.D programme and over 9,072 lecturers in the local masters degree programme. Listing the achievements of TETFUND, he said over 4,485 lecturers were sponsored to overseas institutions for Ph.D programmes and 3,192 for overseas Master’s degree programmes across tertiary institutions. Others include 98,644 for academic staff training and development programme;17,121 academic staff for foreign conferences; 4,459 non academic staff for foreign conferences; 17,410 academic staff sponsored to attend local conferences and 28,660 non academic staff also were sponsored to attend local conferences/workshops among others.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Senator Ahmad Baba Kaita who was represented by Clerk to the Committee Dr Mustapha Bintube said the taxpayers Forum is commendable as it provides higher level interaction and pedestal for elaborate deliberation on the state of infrastructure to support tertiary institutions.
He said the third edition showcased completed and ongoing gigantic projects executed so far and as well accounted for tax collection, remittance and its utilisation to improve infrastructural development of tertiary institutions in the country.
“A forum like this one should be organised from time to time as it has the potency of enhancing investors’ confidence, build trust, ensure transparency and it guarantees accountability of the remittances made to enable resource utilization for revamping tertiary institutions in Nigeria,” he noted.
The Vice Chancellor University of Lagos Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe commended TETFUND for the support received by academic and non academic staff of the University.
