In a significant development for Nigeria’s higher education sector, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has publicly commended the administration of President Bola Tinubu for expediting the approval of its critical funding allocations. This acceleration is seen as a vital step in addressing the chronic infrastructural and developmental deficits plaguing the nation’s universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, made the acknowledgment during the Fund’s 2025 management retreat in Yola, Adamawa State. The retreat, themed “Advancing TETFund Mandate For Efficient Service Delivery In Beneficiary Institutions,” served as a platform to strategize on the deployment of these swiftly approved resources.
“The responsiveness of this administration is noteworthy,” Echono stated. “As I am speaking, even the 2026 intervention guidelines have been approved by Mr President, so we are ready to hit the ground running. This unprecedented speed allows for better planning and earlier project commencement, which is crucial for academic calendars.”
Beyond Speedy Approvals: The Existential Role of TETFund
The commendation from TETFund’s leadership underscores a deeper reality: the Fund has become the financial lifeblood for public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Prof. Ibrahim Umar, Vice Chancellor of Modibbo Adama University (MAU), Yola, provided a stark assessment: “Without TETFund funds, many institutions would have collapsed.” This statement highlights the severe underfunding from regular government budgets, positioning TETFund not as a supplement, but as a primary pillar for survival and basic functionality.
TETFund is primarily financed by a 2% education tax levied on the assessable profit of all registered companies in Nigeria. This mechanism, while sometimes contentious, has created a relatively dedicated and predictable stream of funding for tertiary education, insulating it somewhat from the fluctuations of the national budget.
Persistent Systemic Challenges: The Pleas from Beneficiary Institutions
While grateful for the accelerated approvals, university leaders used the retreat to voice urgent, unmet needs that extend beyond TETFund’s traditional scope of infrastructure, library development, and academic staff training. Their appeals paint a picture of institutions grappling with a hostile operational environment:
- Security: Prof. Umar and Mohammed Dagereji, Provost of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Yola, explicitly appealed for help in addressing kidnapping of lecturers and general security challenges. This points to the direct impact of national security issues on academic stability and staff morale.
- Core Utilities: Appeals for support in “power and internet service” (FCE Yola) highlight how unreliable electricity and poor connectivity cripple research, digital learning, and administrative efficiency, undermining the very infrastructure TETFund builds.
- Accessibility: The call for aid in developing “road networks” (MAU) underscores how isolated many campuses are, affecting student and staff access, as well as the integration of universities with their surrounding communities.
These requests suggest a growing expectation for TETFund to evolve into a more holistic development agency for tertiary institutions, intervening in areas where other government arms have failed.
Accountability and Forward Momentum
In response to the trust and speed demonstrated by the government, beneficiary institutions reaffirmed their commitment to accountability. Prof. Augustine Clement, Vice Chancellor of Adamawa State University, assured that “institutions would continue judicious use of the funds allocated to them.” This pledge is critical, as public scrutiny on the use of TETFund allocations remains high, with past incidents of mismanagement in some institutions.
The retreat concluded with the inauguration of completed TETFund projects at Modibbo Adama University, a tangible reminder of the Fund’s output. The combination of swift presidential approvals, strategic planning retreats, and project commissioning indicates a concerted effort to improve the pace and visibility of educational development. However, the heartfelt pleas from frontline academics reveal that funding alone, no matter how fast-tracked, cannot solve the multifaceted crisis in Nigerian tertiary education without parallel, systemic improvements in security, power, and overall governance.
(Source: NAN)
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Edited by Christiana Fadare
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