Any tertiary institution in the country with a ‘student population’ that is less than 2,000 will no longer receive funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Minister of Education, Mr. Tunji Alausa, has said.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that the minister, who said this on Friday during the one-day engagement held with heads of institutions, bursars, and procurement directors in Lagos, added that the Federal Government is repositioning the funding framework to ensure that public resources are used efficiently.
‘We are re-evaluating how institutions benefit from TETFund. We can no longer incentivise poor performance or underutilisation’ he said.
Alausa also faulted the idea of allocating equal resources to underpopulated institutions like those with significantly higher student populations.
‘Several polytechnics established as far back as 2019 have only between 350 to 550 students enrolled, yet receive the same level of funding as institutions with over 18,000 students.
This is inefficient and unsustainable. Therefore, we have set a new benchmark: any institution that, after five years of operation, still has fewer than 2,000 students may be deemed ineligible for TETFund support until they scale up their capacity’ he submitted while noting that the engagement with institutions from the southern zone was aimed at reviewing the 2024/2025 intervention guidelines and promoting transparency.
‘There’s no doubt that TETFund has greatly benefited our tertiary institutions through numerous interventions and improvements.
However, under the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our focus now is to ensure maximum value from every naira spent in our institutions’ he added.
The minister, who expressed concerns about the proliferation of satellite campuses in the country, which is according to him ‘unsustainable and counterproductive’, also noted that rather than focusing on foreign scholarships more funds would now be invested in building local capacity.
‘Our evidence-based analysis showed that 85 per cent of Nigerian students sent abroad on government scholarships never returned to contribute to national development.
Many of the degree courses they have gone there to take could have been handled effectively within our own institutions’ he added.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Architect Sonny Echono, in his remarks, said the agency is moving towards a more sustainable and performance-driven funding model.
‘TETFund has been moving toward a more sustainable model of funding. This is in line with the broader objective to reduce institutions’ reliance on government subvention and to encourage Public-Private Partnerships, particularly in areas such as hostel development, innovation parks and service facilities’ he said.
He also warned that underperforming institutions may be delisted and stopped from being among the TETFund beneficiaries.
‘Institutional expansion must be checked, and we must avoid unnecessary duplication of mandates.
Institutions that consistently fail to access, utilise, or retire funds appropriately, or that fall short of enrolment and academic performance thresholds, risk being delisted.
This policy is not meant to punish but to safeguard the credibility and impact of TETFund interventions. We want to ensure that the Fund’s resources are directed toward institutions committed to high standards of governance, transparency and accountability’ he added.
The TETFUND boss however emphasized the need for deeper accountability and reforms across the nation’s tertiary institutions.
‘This engagement is a call to action. It is a platform to learn, reflect and commit to best practices in governance, project management and compliance’ Architect Echono said-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
