Amidst the evolving landscape of tertiary education in Katsina, a beacon of hope shines bright as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has reaffirmed its commitment to fortifying the foundations of academic excellence in the state.

With a resolute dedication to enhancing infrastructure, TETFUND’s unwavering support signifies a pivotal moment in the journey towards elevating Katsina’s tertiary institutions to new heights of success and prominence.

The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono recently pledged to transform the Tertiary Education Institutions in Katsina state to be able to overcome the effect of insecurity.

He stated this when he played host to a delegation from Katsina state, led by its Governor, Dikko Radda, who were on a working visit to TETFund.

Echono said the insecurity was a national issue affecting not only education but promised that the necessary infrastructure would be put in place to address it.

According to him, the fund had prioritised all the trouble spots with measures in place to address the issues.

"Given the expansion in tertiary institutions in recent times, I am aware we are in the process of getting University of Transportation into the mainstream of our interventions.

"We have seven to eight institutions in the state benefiting from TETFund. Katsina is in the eyes of problems of insecurity.

"We had already prioritised Katsina in our security intervention because President Bola Tinubu is determined that in times of crisis, education must not stop.

“The president has said that we must bring those out of school back to school, expand existing programmes and more significantly expand access in leveraging technology and providing for indigent students.

“We have prioritised all the trouble spots with a multiplicity of measures. We are ensuring there is power in all our institutions, put in place communication gadgets and the rest. All of these are part of security infrastructure that is being implemented,” he said.

Echono added that skills programmes must be expanded to cover the skills gap pledging that massive plans had been on ground to take children off the street.

He, however, said that the fund has commenced its intervention line for the year saying beneficiary institutions across the country have benefitted between N1.1 billion and N1.9 billion in its intervention line.

He, therefore, advised the state’s Commissioner of Education to liaise with the fund in order to enlist the institutions to benefit in its interventions.

On his part, governor Radda said schools in the state had suffered a series of attacks by bandits and required concerted efforts to fortify the schools against marauders.

He appealed to the management TETFund to support the efforts of the state government in providing safety net around tertiary institutions in the state, saying that schools in the state had suffered a series of attacks by bandits and required concerted efforts to fortify the schools against marauders.

According to the governor, a lot of students had been kidnapped hence the need for support to enable the state to provide adequate infrastructure for students to learn.

He, however, commended TETFund for its overwhelming intervention in tertiary institutions in the state and across the country, saying without TETFund most of the tertiary institutions in Nigeria would have been glorified secondary schools.

We need to appreciate the Federal Government for these interventions. What could our institutions be without you?

“The states are struggling, the country is struggling in terms of economic hardship, depreciation of naira, high foodstuffs, effect on removal of Subsidy.

“The northern parts are struggling with insecurity. The resources we receive will not be adequate to address the challenges in the state so TETFund is a place we can come to for support.

“We are having a threat of insecurity and a lot of students have been kidnapped, so we need a lot of security in the institutions to make students learn in a conducive environment,” he said.

The governor explained that the interventions would provide for the needed infrastructure for the safety of the students adding that the state is in the process of converting its ICT institution to a university of technology.

LEADERSHIP reports that TETFund has been providing supplementary support to all levels of public tertiary institutions with the main objective of using funding alongside project management for the rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of Tertiary Education in Nigeria.

The latest is the disbursement of N683 billion to Nigerian tertiary institutions, following the approval granted by President Bola Tinubu. The amount was twice the N320 billion disbursed to the institutions by the intervention agency in 2023.

The TETFund boss noted that the increase was a result of the increase in education tax, which forms the source of funding for the government agency.

The remarkable success, according to the Fund is due to sustained efforts at expanding and increasing the efficiency of collection of the Education Tax, and the gracious concurrence of Mr. President for an increase in the tax from 2.5 per cent to 3.0 per cent in the year 2023.”

The Nigerian government had increased the Education Tax paid by all Nigerian companies from 2.5 of their profits to 3 percent when former President Muhammad Buhari signed the Finance Act 2023, a day before the end of his tenure in May 2023.

The Education Tax was previously at 2 per cent but was increased to 2.5 per cent in 2021 and to 3 per cent in 2023.

Culled from Leadership Newspapers