The Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriations, Senator Olamilekan Adeola has promised that the Nigeria Senate will continue to support the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), to advance tertiary education in the country, through the enactment of relevant laws.
Senator Adeola, who made the promise while commissioning some projects worth over N2 billion, donated by TETFUND to some higher institutions in Ogun State, said his committee has commissioned over 76 TETFund-sponsored projects in 17 higher institutions in 11 states of the federation.
The beneficiary institutions in the State included the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Ijagun and the Federal College of Education (FCE), Osiele, all in Ogun state.
The projects included; blocks of classrooms, office complexes, an E-library, information centres, a students’ guidance and counselling centre and a 250-seater auditorium.
According to Adeola who was represented by a former Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State, Prof. Tope Popoola, the projects donated to FUNAAB cost about N1.1 billionn, while the projects built at TASCE cost N1 billion and the projects at FCE gulped N484 million.
“I wish to reiterate that the National Assembly would continue to work harmoniously with the Executive towards making our educational institutions globally competitive for economic and technological development of the country.
“I, therefore, wish to use this opportunity to assure you that the 10th Senate under the leadership of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and indeed, the entire National Assembly will continue to provide necessary support to the Fund through the enactment of legislations that would further advance tertiary education in Nigeria”, Adeola added.
In his remark, Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono stated that FUNAAB has received allocations up to N8,759,098,751.25 for infrastructure-related interventions since the commencement of the Fund’s interventions to the institution since 2009.
Echono, who was represented by Arc. Babatunde Olajide, Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, also noted that 91.6 per cent of the funds have been accessed and deployed to address infrastructural deficiencies in the university.
He said, “The statistics reveal that about 91.6% of these funds have been accessed and deployed to address infrastructural deficiencies in the Universities. We do not doubt that the projects undertaken with these funds have remarkably impacted on the mandate of the Universities in facilitating teaching.
“Our resolve as a Fund is to ensure that our interventions are sustained and improved upon as much as possible to enable our institutions to undertake bigger, more laudable and impactful projects that will make them become globally competitive”.
The FUNAAB Vice Chancellor, Prof Olusola Kehinde applauded the TETFUND for the donation, saying those resources would be used for developmental purposes.
Kehinde who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), Prof Kolawole Adebayo, said “FUNAAB has fully utilised the allocations that were given and to a large extent we have used it judiciously to the extent that we are now qualified for greater things from the TETFUND”.
