As part of ongoing reforms to boost efficiency and transparency in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has announced a shift in policy direction—suspending its foreign academic staff training programme while warning beneficiary institutions of possible delisting over mismanagement and poor performance.
The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, disclosed this on Monday at a one-day strategic engagement with heads of institutions, bursars, and procurement officers of the Fund’s beneficiary institutions in Abuja.
Echono said the foreign component of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff was suspended effective January 1, 2025, due to rising costs and incidents of scholars absconding abroad. He said the Fund would now prioritise cost-effective, locally driven training for academic staff.
Beyond the training shift, TETFund is taking a hard stance on accountability. Echono warned that institutions that consistently fail to access, utilise, or retire funds appropriately—or fall short of enrolment and academic performance benchmarks—risk being removed from the list of TETFund beneficiaries.
“Let me be clear, institutions that consistently fail to access, utilise or retire funds appropriately, or that fall short of enrollment and academic performance thresholds, risk being delisted as TETFund beneficiary institutions,” he said.
He explained that the move was not punitive but necessary to safeguard the credibility and impact of TETFund’s interventions, adding that resources must be channeled to institutions committed to good governance, transparency, and accountability.
Echono stated that the strategic meeting was aimed at resolving persistent issues within the tertiary education system, improving project execution, and elevating the quality of education delivery across institutions.
“This engagement is not merely a meeting but a strategic convergence. It is designed to address recurring issues of concern, streamline project implementation and enhance the overall quality of tertiary education delivery in our nation,” he said.
This year’s intervention budget, he added, would focus on consolidating past efforts, promoting sustainability, and ensuring the completion of abandoned projects.
Echono urged institutions to collaborate with the Fund to strengthen accountability, drive innovation, and ensure that TETFund’s impact is both equitable and enduring.
Also speaking at the event, Dr. Joshua Atah, who represented the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Ribadu, praised TETFund’s vital role in sustaining Nigeria’s public tertiary education through infrastructural development, research, and academic staff training.
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He acknowledged the Fund’s policy flexibility, particularly the suspension of foreign training, as a strategic move to reallocate resources more effectively.
Ribadu charged institutions to demonstrate greater responsiveness in the design and implementation of interventions, ensuring their relevance and alignment with Nigeria’s evolving educational landscape.
“This calls for greater responsiveness also on the part of the institutions… not just in judicious utilisation, but also in a timely manner so that we don’t lose the fund,” he said.
Ribadu further encouraged open, constructive dialogue throughout the engagement to drive meaningful change and sustained development in the sector.
