From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and other Services has disclosed that over N500 billion TETFund intervention fund was lying idle in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as they remained unaccessed by tertiary institutions across the country.
To this end, the House of Representatives has vowed to address the challenges hindering the tertiary institutions in the country from accessing the huge intervention fund allocated to them from the TETFund.
Chairman of the Committee, Mariam Odinaka Onuoha, who led other members of the Committee to visit Governor Uba Sani, said three Kaduna State-owned tertiary institutions had over N1.3 billion unaccessed TETFund intervention funds.
Addressing the governor, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, Onuoha commended President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to infrastructural development in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, saying that 80 percent of the infrastructure dotting the institutions were on account of the TETFund intervention.
“One of the key mandates of this committee is to ensure proper oversight of the tertiary intervention and to make proper account of all the monies that have been disbursed to bridge infrastructure gap and improve teaching and learning across all tertiary institutions, as well as proper account of the budget estimate for TETFund and beneficiary institutions.
“The key responsibility of the committee is also oversight of the TETFund agency, which the committee embarked on in May. In that assignment, the committee found out that over N500 billion was lying in CBN unutilised. This money has been allocated to the beneficiary institutions but are yet to be drawn.
“When we probed further, the committee was greeted with further excuses and reasons for this accumulated funds. We, thereafter, set up a committee following a resolution to ensure that there was dispatch to the effect that this accumulated funding had to be released to the institutions, not minding the impediments or whatever challenges that existed.
“The committee has come as a technical team to diagnose the problems as it were with various institutions, the challenges and appropriate the right solutions to ensure that we get the money. The essence of the allocation in the first instance is to ensure that you deploy such funds for the academic needs.
“We are not unaware of the growing needs to improve funding and interventions within the 12 intervention lines of TETFund. But, I want to also use this opportunity to acknowledge the President for this intervention for TETFund. Eighty percent of the infrastructure dotting the institutions today are on account of the TETFund intervention, and for that, we give kudos to the Federal Government for a good initiative.
“The TETFund intervention goes to three major state owned tertiary institutions in Kaduna State; Kaduna State University, Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria and College of Education, Gidan Waya.
“For Kaduna State University, we have the unaccessed fund totalling N547 million, and this ranges from physical infrastructure, entrepreneurship, project monitoring, ICT support, library development, zonal intervention, academic staff training and development, institution based research, publication of journals, conference attendance, manuscript development, equipment fabrication, advocacy and teaching practice.
“These lines of interventions have also been extended to Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, and we have the unaccessed intervention for Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic standing at N724 million. For the College of Education, Gidan Waya, we have N30 million.
“So, all together, we have a total of N1.302 billion. Therefore, this committee has taken it upon itself to raise the alarm and create awareness on the need to properly access this monies once allocated.
“You will agree with me that depreciation will always set in and that N500 million allocated to do this project in 2020 will not be able to do it now, but given the stringent conditions attached to the TETFund guidelines with regards to prerequisites for accessing these funds, it will hitherto not be possible to readjust this funding.
With the intervention of this committee and TETFund Agency, the committee has the resolution and mandate to, within this short period of time, make it possible for some of these conditions to be relaxed, such that, you will be able to now re-scope, redesign and re-price these projects in a manner that the fund will be able to complete the projects,” she said.
Dr. Balarabe expressed her appreciation to the Committee members for their dedication to resolving the challenges that hinder higher education institutions from accessing federal intervention funds.
She encouraged the heads of the state’s tertiary institutions present at the meeting to share their challenges openly with the House of Representatives, fostering a collaborative approach to finding viable solutions. The meeting was also attended by leaders from various federal educational institutions in the state.
The deputy governor expressed her gratitude to the delegation for their visit and assured them that the state government would fully commit to any agreements reached during the meeting.
She encouraged all heads of tertiary institutions to identify and present the challenges they face, particularly those related to accessing funds.
The deputy gGovernor also emphasised the importance of maintaining consistent standards across all departments and elevating the state’s institutions to a higher level.
She acknowledged that while TETFund interventions were vital for the development of the institutions, sustaining the efforts across all schools has proven challenging for many in the state.