THE NEW TETFund: WHITHER MR INNOVATOR?
— A mustardpoint.com Analysis.
When, fifteen months ago, the freshly retired federal Permanent Secretary, Architect Sunny Togo Echono, was appointed Executive Secretary(ES) of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFund) to take over from Professor Elias Bogoro, there was so much euphoric expectations towards moving the establishment to another level which would be more functional and more responsive to the ever evolving needs of Nigeria’s Educational sectors(specifically the public Universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education). Unequaled dynamism was expected of the new ES for the nation to become a better player on the globalised educational stage of cutting edge competitiveness. These expectations were not misplaced as they drew from a well of precedents which had accrued to the highly rated former President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, as well as during his equally acclaimed years traversing the Civil Service of the Federation during which time he had been variously described as highly reliable, diligent, thorough, dependable, professional, and innovative.
The question that readily comes to mind now, however, is how much of these qualities have been brought to bear in the new Executive Secretary’s more than one year at TETFund and how much positive impact has it had on the Organisation?
In the new spirit of accountability seemingly enveloping the whole Nation, at the onset of a new Administration, it is pertinent to interrogate the salient plans which Arc Sonny Echono spelt out in his inaugural speech, and judge him by his words, how much he has been able to match action with words or not.
On resumption as the new Executive Secretary, Arc Sonny Echono did not mince words in setting up his agenda for TETFund. Items he spelt out included, but not limited to, Internal Reorganisation towards greater efficiency; swipe on Erring Contractors and staff of tertiary institutions in Overseas Training Funds; suspected Procurement Racketeering involving TETFund staff; Curriculum Review; Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship; ICT Advancement; Deepening Research Development and Innovation in Tertiary Institutions; Partnerships; and Books Publications.
Analysis of the actions taken by the new ES even in the first one hundred days showed clearly the direction he was heading. He started by the outright cancelation and, or, suspension of programmes and consultancies considered to be of no special importance to TETFund. He followed this with disengagement of almost half of the members of the National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee, considering their unclear roles, which were at best duplications of others, and therefore wasteful. The ES then rightsized the Technical Advisory Group for greater efficiency.
Within one year in office as Executive Secretary, Arc Sonny Echono had approved numerous physical infrastructure projects which were undertaken in tertiary educational institutions all over the country. These included seven Universities Senate Buildings; seven University Library Buildings; forty two University Faculty Buildings; fourteen Polytechnic Faculty Buildings; as well as numerous Lecture Theatres; Lecture Halls/Classrooms; Administrative/Academic Staff Offices; Entrepreneurship Buildings and Equipments; ICT Buildings and Equipments; Male and Female Hostel Buildings; Vehicles; Perimeter Fencing, and many physical infrastructural projects scattered all over Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
Financial administration has undergone some significant changes since Echono took over. There has been impressive achievement in Non-Statutory Revenue, while overseeing Government Agencies such as National Assembly Committees and Auditor General ‘s Office have been furnished with adequate information regarding queries and observations about financial activities of TETFund. There has been reasonable reduction in turnaround time for processing transactions in respect of Staff, Service Providers and Beneficiary Institutions, just as Budgetary Control Stamp has been introduced to reduce over-budgetary spending, and Contractors are now paid as at when due.
During the last one year, not less than two hundred and seventy three Manuscript Projects were approved for funding from sixty Institutions, while not less than three hundred and thirty nine Academic Research Journal Projects were also approved for funding in ninety six tertiary institutions. This is particularly interesting as many years had gone by without any books published at TETFund.
Mention must be made of the introduction of electronic vetting of Library Development Intervention Project which has led to seamless submissions of proposals, further improving the ease of doing business with Beneficiary Institutions.
Under ICT Advancement, in the 2022 Zonal Intervention one hundred and forty eight Institutions received approval for fixed mobile Internet access and aggregation of electronic journals, as well as solar power to libraries and data centres. In addition to these were also the digitization of thesis, provision of central repository to minimise plagiarism, provision of over two hundred Desktop and Laptops (including Antivirus) as working tools for staff, provision of wired and wireless network for TETFund headquarters, provision of alternative power source for ICT infrastructure at the Fund, among others.
Also worthy of note is the unveiling of the Tertiary Education Research Application and Services (TERAS) Platform recently by the Honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, which is designed by the Fund to support the learning needs of students in tertiary Institutions in the country.
Read Also: TETFUND inaugurates N1bn project at Bauchi State University
Research, Development and Innovation are very critical areas towards achieving the mandate of TETFund. It must be in recognition of this that Arc Sunny Echono has sought to deepen those areas in Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education through purposeful execution of projects such as the introduction and equipping of Research Units in beneficiary institutions complete with utility vehicles; funding Entrepreneurship projects to forge links between Researchers, Developers and Innovators to engender wealth creation for national development; partnering with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to execute the Employability Benchmarking Assessment Programme with its VITAE Tool in thirty seven Nigerian Universities, with the aim of providing a starting baseline to guide the development of specific interventions for employability at both institutional and systems levels; deploying the Triple Helix formula towards the institutionalisation of Research and Development through Research and Innovative Partnership between Tertiary Institutions, Research Institutes, Industry and Government; establishment of Incubation Hubs for R&D research outcomes resulting in strong linkages between the Entrepreneurship Centres, industries and eventual products commercialization.
The institutionalisation of an Annual Productivity Award is another innovation by the ES to motivate staff.
Partnerships have become commonplace at TETFund (both internally and with external bodies) since Arc Echono took over as Executive Secretary. Some of these strategic partners include National Economic Summit Group (NESG), African Union (AU), European Union (EU), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa(FARA), British Government, and the University of Brazil.
His penchant for inclusivity and transparency in the running of affairs of the Fund is uncommon as demonstrated by his constant engagement with stakeholders such as Academic and Non-Academic unions of the Benefitting Institutions and even students unions.
Visits by Executive Governors of States, Chief Executive Officers of Corporations, Vice-Chancellors, Provosts, Rectors, and numerous other stakeholders in the education sector, to the office of TETFUND Executive Secretary in the last six months only points at the versatility and openness of Arc Sonny Echono to maintain bridges with the total development of the country in mind. He has, not surprisingly, once again deployed his deep knowledge of human capital rationalisation, organizational restructuring, general innovative re-engineering, as well as inter-Institutional nexus strategies, all aimed at higher efficiency, higher productivity, and optimal achievements of set goals and objectives.
TETFund is, no doubt, on a solid course! Little wonder that he has become the choice of Nigerian Universities to deliver Convocation Lectures in the last one year especially.
