Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFund is to disburse N292.66 billion to selected public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across the country.
The Executive Secretary of TETFund Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, said the intervention which has been okayed by the Federal Government, would be spread to higher education institutions in each of the six geo-political zones in the country.
He said according to the 2021 disbursement plans, TETFund is to give N906.8 million to one university each from the six geo-political zones while N628.4 million will go to one polytechnic and one college of education from each of the six geo-political zones.
Professor Bogoro stated this while addressing heads of beneficiary institutions to a one-day stakeholders briefing, in Abuja.
He explained that TETFund’s Board of Trustees (BoT), approved N5 billion each, for the University of Lagos (Unilag) and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, for massive infrastructural projects development.
The TETFund boss said N1 billion was also approved as funds for the completion of special intervention projects for Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and another N1 billion for Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, adding that more tertiary institutions would benefit from the special allocations in a not too distant time.
Professor Bogoro said TETFund is also providing support to boost research activities in Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), among others, to address the nation’s security challenges.
On TETFund’s intervention in the health sector, Prof. Bogoro stated that the Fund has provided N1 billion to one university each in the six geo-political zones for medical research as well as providing facilities for treatment of major ailments like prostate cancer, kidney problems, among others.
“With the Urology and kidney facilities made available, we are expecting a number of our teaching hospitals to come up with the capacity, granted that the equipment we provided, they should be able to do kidney transplant etc, in our universities.
“We intend to continue strengthening some in terms of cancer facilities, urology research clinical facilities and heart facilities,” he said.
The forum also provided Bogoro an opportunity to explain that the Board of TETFund has approved the review of overseas masters and PhD courses/specialization.
According to him, more emphasis would now be placed on masters or PhD programmes that are science based.
Among the overseas masters and PhD courses specializations with effect from August 2021 includes: Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Biosciences, Biomedical Engineering, Material Science and Engineering, Industrial Systems and Engineering, Geosciences, Behavioural Sciences, Nuclear Engineering, Oceanography, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, among others.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of allocation letters to the beneficiary institutions.
RN