Deployment Of Additional Resources To Institutions Comes With Increased Responsibilities, Cutting Edge Researches, Says TETFund
Deployment Of Additional Resources To Institutions Comes With Increased Responsibilities, Cutting Edge Researches, Says TETFund
The Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Mr. Sonny Echono, has charged heads of tertiary institutions and beneficiary agencies that the deployment of additional resources to their respective institutions comes with added responsibilities and delivery of cutting edge researches.
Echono, gave the charge in Lagos, at a retreat for members of the Board of Trustees (BoT), of the fund tagged: “Education in the Renewed Hope Agenda”, and urged institutions to manage the resources given to them very well and be efficient in their process of planning, packaging and accessing the funds.
He assured that with the President Ahmed Tinubu’s backing the fund is up to the task of making positive changes and contributions to the education sector.
“Mr. President was very direct in his instruction to the education sector that we must do everything possible to re-establish the pivotal role of education in our national affairs, being the bedrock of all our development efforts.
“You will notice that any sector you look at, the foundation for it is from the education sector. So if I’m talking about healthcare delivery, you need to produce doctors, you need to produce pharmacists, you need to produce lab technicians. If you are talking about modernizing your agriculture, it has to be a product of research carried out by educational institutions.
“We need to get our education right by setting the right standards, providing the right facilities, ensuring that we have the right quality of lecturers and teachers in our various establishments, “he said.
On expectation from beneficiary institutions, he said, “We want them to be prompt in dealing with all the third parties they deal with, like their contractors, pay them promptly so that we don’t get caught up with all these inflationary trends we are seeing so that projects can be delivered on time and to the right quality.
“We want them to up their supervision mechanism. We are also introducing more efficient monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the quality of the projects they deliver are optimal.
He explained that the retreat was meant to bring together the members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of TETFund to sensitize them, particularly the leadership of the education sector in the National Assembly on what their roles should be.
The BoT Chairman, Rt Hon. Aminu Masari, former Governor of Katsina State, assured that under his leadership, the fund would do its best to advance higher education in the country.
He urged board members to leverage their wealth of experience to contribute significantly to the development of education in Nigeria.
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He paid tributes to the founding fathers of the fund and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), for their efforts in establishing TETFund.
Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, the immediate past Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), in a paper titled: “The role of the Board of Trustees in Transforming the future of Higher Education in Nigeria”, at the retreat underscored the need for quality tertiary education as the bedrock of the future of Nigeria.
He said, “Without TEFFund, many public tertiary institutions would find it difficult to function effectively or would not have survived.
Adding, “That shows how important the fund is to the sector. Every hand must be on deck to support it and make it do better.”
In another presentation by Professor Charles Arizechukwu Igwe, ex-Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka themed: “TETFUND Intervention Lines: Impacts And Challenges On Tertiary Education In Nigeria”, urged the fund to expand special interventions to include priority items of particular interest to institutions.
He declared, “Many first generation universities would appreciate special support to install tailor-made independent electricity plants
following the hike in electricity bill and the off-grid provision for power supply recently made in the country.
“Tetfund can position itself as a champion of technology innovation to turnaround Nigeria by supporting focused interventions for strategic development of Nigeria. Fabrication laboratories could be sited in the various zones as hubs for creative innovation and technological development,” he added.
Prof Igwe thanked the ES TETFUND, Mr Sunny Echono and his able team for creating the enabling environment for the tertiary institutions to access their allocations just as he welcomed the Chairman of Board and his team as they take up the new tasks to move tertiary education in Nigeria to enviable heights.
