How TETFUND Interventions Have Shaped Infrastructure in Nigerian Varsities

By Tersoo Adagher/ABUJA// The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) was established by the Nigerian government to intervene in the public tertiary education sector through rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of teaching and learning infrastructure, resources and environment towards uplifting Nigeria for global competitiveness.

As government’s intervention agency with the mandate to fund all public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, TETFUND has continued to provide transformative interventions in public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education across the country that have helped infrastructural development; provided funding for educational activities as well as promote creative and innovative approach to educational learning and services among others.

With Arc. Sonny Echono as Executive Secretary of the Fund, his zeal, commitment and energy towards improving the tertiary sub-sector has brought sustained improvements in our education system. This is evidenced in the turning around of the fortunes of these public tertiary institutions to world-class establishments where beneficiary institutions have continued to witness significant improvements in physical infrastructure; human development as well as research and documentation.

At the 2024 TETFund Strategic Planning Meeting with Heads of Beneficiary Institutions organized in Abuja recently, Arc. Echono disclosed that the Fund will extend its intervention to some new areas in its annual direct disbursement for the year 2024 to include the establishment of Career Centers/Unit in all categories of beneficiary institutions as well as the Institution Based Skills Development for Polytechnics. Another area of intervention is the enhancement of teaching practice allocation which is in response to popular demands from the Colleges of Education.

For Special Direct Disbursements, TETFund has increased the allocation for the Special High Impact Programme (SHIP), and also increased the number of benefitting institutions to two (2) per geopolitical zone per category, giving a total of 36 beneficiary institutions. Other areas of intervention under the Special Direct Disbursement are the provision for hostels using the public/private partnership arrangement; innovation hubs; disaster recovery; security infrastructure; completion of abandoned projects and many others.

Further reiterating the Fund’s determination to deepen research, promote innovation and honing of skills in beneficiary institutions, Echono disclosed that there are sustained research allocations ranging from the National Research Fund; Research and Innovation Fund; Uptake of Research Findings to Commercialization and Supervision of Scholars for PHD Research. He said TETFund has also made provisions for four central multipurpose laboratories and additional provision for the three agricultural laboratories and demonstration farms initiated in 2023.

In his words “We have sustained the implementation of the ICT road map with the provision for converged services, subscription services for electronic journals and databases, internet access and the Tertiary Education Research and Application Services Platform (TERAS) initiative. Whilst increasing the ICT Support Intervention to beneficiary institutions as part of our ICT initiatives this year, we seek to deliver online access to a one-stop aggregation of online learning and course certifications from the world’s leading providers: Udemy, Udacity and Coursera using AVIS which is an aggregated multi-provider online course learning and certification platform. This is an initiative by the Fund to sponsor beneficiary institutions students’ access on the course learning/certification platform”.

“We will intensify efforts at automating our processes and to this effect, we are commencing the parallel run for electronic submissions of the Physical Infrastructure Intervention submissions from January 22, 2024. We will equally be expanding access for the diverse student population of the National Open University by upgrading their study centers to experience centers to facilitate improved access to teaching, learning and research”.

“There will be an upgrade of laboratories, workshops and equipment to Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (Technical) in the Year 2024 intervention. To this end, we have empaneled teams to visit institutions, access their priority needs and make recommendations based on qualitative selection criteria. Provision has also been made for the early grade resources centers phase II to Colleges of Education”, he said.

With the aforementioned, one will not easy dismiss the accolades being poured on the Executive Secretary of TETFund and his management team by relevant stakeholders for bringing a ray of hope to the nation’s tertiary education sub-sector. Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Dr. Chris Maiyaki while commending the leadership of TETFUND for the giant strides and huge successes recorded so far, stated that the FUND has in recent times, proven to be a veritable tool for turning around the fortunes of our tertiary education system in Nigeria.

To him, it is inconceivable and unthinkable to imagine the Nigerian tertiary education landscape without the Fund’s laudable interventions both in capacity building, laboratories, research grants and innovation among others.

The Vice Chancellor, Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), Professor Suleiman Mohammed wonders what would have being the state of tertiary institutions in the country without TETFund interventions. He said the several TETFund projects have helped infrastructure at NSUK. His words “We have been so fortunate to have support from TETFund and I have impressively utilized the support and intervention. I used it to build this present senate building, an excellent workshop in the faculty of engineering, bought equipment for engineering and built the college of health sciences. I was also able to get support for the building of a 1,000-seater capacity ICT Centre”.

“Through TETFund, we were able to build our college of medical sciences; at least one phase is completed and the college has taken off with two programmes which are Community Health and Health Information Management. Through interventions, we were able to build our library. It is one of the most fantastic libraries around and we feel good about it. We have also met some of our infrastructural deficits through these interventions. As far as infrastructure is concerned, TETFund has given us massive assistance that has transformed the university such that if you go around the university, you are likely going to assume that it is a TETFund university”, he said.

For Sule Mundi who is the Provost, FCT College of Education, Zuba, the tertiary education system in Nigeria would’ve been in a terrible state if not for TETFund’s intervention. Mundi who was speaking on the importance of the Fund in sustaining the nation’s educational system, said most of the infrastructure you see in Colleges of Educations, Universities and Polytechnics wouldn’t have existed without the intervention of the Fund. He attributed the location of the College Administration; School of Sciences complex; School of Languages; School of Arts and Social Science; School of Vacation, Department of Agriculture and other four theatres at the new site to the full completion of TETFund intervention projects.

Mundi further disclosed that in the area of training, the College has about 70 staff members who have been sponsored for PhD and Masters programmes all through TETFund interventions. Others areas are staff participation in several conferences and workshops as well as Institution-Based Research (IBR) among others.

The Provost, University of Education, Kontagora, Niger State, Prof. Farouk Rashid Haruna had said prior to the take off of the University, TETFund had spent about N1.8 billion to construct various projects in the institution, thereby creating a conducive environment for learning. He said the executed projects have made positive impact on academic excellence and greatly complemented the efforts of the authorities of the institution towards providing a better learning environment for students especially in the area of addressing the challenges of lecture halls and office accommodation.

Some of the TETFund projects in the recently upgraded university include a completed two-storey building complex with facilities for the School of Arts and Social Science and General Education Programme; a multi-purpose hall; lecture theatre for School of Science and Languages Programme; and Biological Garden to mention a few.

With the way TETFund intervention projects are being executed across tertiary institutions in the country, the challenge of lack of basic infrastructure that will guarantee qualitative and sound education in the nation’s higher education system will soon be a thing of the past.