TETFund shares N213bn to varsities, polytechnics, colleges

The Buhari administration has approved the Tertiary Education Trust Fund 2016 intervention budget of N213.4 billion, the
highest ever to be distributed to the tertiary institutions.

Dr. Abdullahi Baffa, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, disclosed this at a news briefing in Abuja on Monday.

Giving a breakdown of the budget, Baffa said each of the 40 federal universities and 34 state universities will receive the sum of
N1.94 billion.

Baffa added that each of the 54 public polytechnics would get N691 million, while each of the 55 colleges of education will receive N679 million He said this was the biggest ever annual disbursement given any beneficiary institution since the establishment of TETFund.

In 2010, for example, each university was given N303 million, polytechnics were given N216 million and colleges of education were given N157 million.

In 2012, universities got N595 million, polytechnics N337 million and colleges of education N319 million.

In 2015, universities were given N337 million, Polytechnics were given N250 million and colleges of education N227 million.

“What was given this year is more than three times what was allocated in the previous year,” Baffa said.

The executive secretary said in a bid to ensure that institutions were manned by scholars that have terminal degrees, the
fund had placed a high premium for them to have scholarships to study for higher degrees.

He said: “That is why academic staff training and development is allocated N300 million for universities and N200 million each for polytechnics and colleges of education respectively.”

Baffa said the fund will ensure it monitored the allocation disbursed to each institutions
to ensure the fund was judiciously utilised.