Taraba state university is said to have a whopping sum of N642,848,138 as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) on Monday in Abuja began the disbursement of allocation papers for direct intervention funds approved by the presidency to public tertiary institutions in the country.



The latest interventions which runs into billions of naira, saw each beneficiary institutions, being allocated N642,848,138.00 to each University, N396,780,086.00 to each Polytechnic and N447,758,804.00 to each College of Education in the country for the year 2022.


Presenting the papers to heads of the beneficiary institutions by the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Arch Sunny Echono noted that the desire to develop human capital to service the various sectors of the Nigerian economy, primarily informed government’s investment in the education sector.


According to him, government is not unmindful of the deficit and decay in the tertiary sub-sector, noting that it also informed the establishment of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund; which was initially referred to as Education Tax Fund in 1993 and later metamorphosed into Tertiary Education Trust Fund in 2011.


The TETFund boss equally lamented the instances of distressed or non-performing projects which according to him was becoming rampart and disturbing.


He noted that the Fund had about 7 nonperforming/distressed projects in University of Port Harcourt. 6 in Enugu State University, a total of 5 in University of Nigeria Nsukka, 4 in Taraba State University in University of Calabar, 4 in Kaduna State University and I at Alvan koku College of Education.


“This phenomenon becomes even more worrisome, when viewed alongside the problem of un-accessed funds We are mindful of the intricate variables in project management and delivery as well as the constraints created by our own internal policies and are ensuring that we review our processes where required but will also demand from beneficiary institutions accountability and sanctions where needed.”I will in the coming weeks be engaging beneficiary institutions who have these serious problems with the view of bringing the projects to speedy completion and use”, he noted.


Recall that TETFund’s mandate involves the utilization of initially 2% and now 2.5% Education Tax charged on assessable profit of all companies registered in Nigeria to improve the conditions, and quality of the nation’s public tertiary institutions.


Echono, who recently succeeded Prof. Elais Bogoro as Executive Secretary of TETFund, pledged to boost the ICT capacity of the Fund in order to ensure seamless operations.


He said, “Upon assumption of office. I received briefings and presentations from all the departments of the Fund on the status of their various activities. This was to enable me assess the level of progress and to see if there are issues that needed to be addressed urgently.”


“One of our primary areas of focus, is digital literacy and the development and deployment of information and communication technology (ICT), including ubiquitous broadband and data connectivity/access to our institutions to enhance our ICT capabilities.”