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By Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has explained that Nigeria’s tertiary education sector has received increased financial interventions in recent years.
Specifically, the agency noted that, since the commencement of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in 2023, the education sector, particularly tertiary education, has received tremendous support, financially and otherwise, resulting in improved infrastructure, research and manpower development.
Executive secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, during a recent engagement with journalists on the sidelines of a meeting with the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, in Abuja, disclosed that the agency has received more support, financially, logistically and otherwise, under the current administration of President Tinubu than in previous years combined.
Echono said the remarkable achievement demonstrates the President’s determination and commitment to quality and affordable education in Nigeria.
He said: “Over time, our primary goal has been to make education available and accessible to every Nigerian child. What Mr. President has done for us, and, as head of the institution, I am in a position to confirm, is that he has mobilised additional resources for us.
“What we have received under Mr. President in the last three years is more than what was obtained in the previous 10 years put together. As a result, we are able to fund many initiatives, including the student loan scheme and interventions in the medical sector.
“We have a President who has mobilised additional resources for us while also ensuring that we use those resources prudently and deploy them effectively. Meanwhile, what the military is helping us to do is to produce the manpower we require, specialised manpower in areas of specific need.
“As a country, we are not limited to producing graduates in conventional courses; we are also focusing on highly specialised fields. That is why we are establishing specialised institutions in aviation, science, and technology. We are now talking about cybersecurity, nanotechnology, mechatronics, and related fields.
“We are also establishing Centres of Excellence in all these areas, and we are funding them. Therefore, there is no major strain on our impact. Our schools are getting more funding now than they did before.”
Meanwhile, a few months ago, TETFund announced the disbursement of annual intervention funds to eligible institutions for the 2026 cycle, in line with the disbursement guidelines approved by President Bola Tinubu.
TETFund noted that under the annual direct disbursement, 271 beneficiary institutions received allocations as follows: universities, N2,525,932,228.02 per institution; polytechnics, N1,871,059,920.53 each; and Colleges of Education, N2,056,527,973.04 each.
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He explained that the total direct disbursement (90.75%) consists of annual direct disbursement, special direct disbursement (40.75%), while designated projects account for 9.07% and the stabilisation fund 0.18%.
Echono said the funds are meant to strengthen critical physical infrastructure, enhance academic programmes, boost research and innovation, drive overall transformation in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, and improve the quality and impact of research in beneficiary institutions.
The Fund also introduced a new intervention line in the 2026 annual direct intervention cycle known as the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN).
The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, explained that the new intervention line was designed to improve access to global academic resources and integrate the Tertiary Education, Research, Applications and Services (TERAS) platform into NgREN with effect from the 2026 intervention cycle.
“We are expanding the special intervention projects to cover the establishment of Centres for Robotics, Coding and AI/Machine Learning, and Centres for Cybersecurity Studies in selected beneficiary institutions. An additional 12 beneficiary institutions shall benefit from the commercial farm project. These will include two universities, eight polytechnics, and two Colleges of Education,” he said.
He expressed optimism that with increased investments, 2026 would be a year of growth, innovation, and measurable impact.
Reflecting on the 2025 intervention cycle, the TETFund boss confirmed that the Fund recorded notable milestones and commendable progress, including strengthened stakeholder engagement, improved policy alignment, timely implementation of intervention programmes, and sustained capacity-building initiatives across beneficiary institutions.
He said: “Some efforts deployed to strengthen stakeholder engagement during the 2025 intervention cycle included the successful convening of strategic meetings with Heads of Institutions to review previous intervention cycle and allocations for the intervention year.
“Similarly, strategic engagements with Heads of Institutions, bursars, and heads of procurement, as well as strategic workshops for Directors of Physical Planning, Academic Planning, and ICT in TETFund beneficiary institutions, were organised.
“The Fund also organised a workshop on campus security to address the escalating and increasingly complex security challenges confronting Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. These engagements were part of efforts aimed at ensuring collective commitment and shared experiences in delivering on our mandate, and we intend to sustain them in 2026.
“Throughout the previous year, we proactively addressed critical sectoral needs through targeted interventions, including the special high-impact intervention for the rehabilitation of medical schools across the six geopolitical zones.
“These included the public-private partnership hostel development initiative, the establishment of medical simulation and technology centres, the staff support fund, the provision of electric tricycles to enhance campus transportation, and the rollout of students’ start-up and innovation grants across beneficiary institutions.
“I am pleased to inform the public that many of these initiatives have been retained in the 2026 guidelines. Hence, I implore beneficiaries to expeditiously implement these programmes as we expect to roll out others in the coming weeks.”
