The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has commissioned a 244-bed female hostel at Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori River State

The commissioning is part of ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to address students’ accommodation challenges in public tertiary institutions in the country.

While commissioning the hostel, the member representing the South-South Geopolitical Zone on the TETFund Board of Trustees, Hon. Aboh Uduyok commended the management of the institution for the timely delivery of the project.

He said: “Today’s event is more than a commissioning; it is a celebration of partnership, vision, and progress. Across Nigeria, TETFund has been commissioning completed projects in beneficiary institutions.

“This reflects the Fund’s steady pursuit of excellence and impact through purposeful interventions. What we witness here today is a demonstration of prudent resource management and a shared commitment to transforming Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, we are assembled here today for the commissioning of a 244 – Bed Female Student Hostel project whose total cost is N1,399,965,179.25 sponsored by TETFund. It is gratifying to note that this project has been delivered under the present challenging economic conditions, and this is a tangible symbol of resilience, integrity, and commitment.

“This stands as part of TETFund’s continuous effort to ensure that all beneficiary institutions have the requisite physical infrastructure to support innovation, creativity, and excellence in technical and vocational education.”

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, who was represented by Engr. Samson Imoni of TETFund’s Monitoring and Evaluation Department commended the institution for demonstrating prudence, integrity and discipline in its management of public funds.

Also speaking, Rector of the polytechnic, Dr. Ledum Gwarah expressed appreciation to TETFund for its invention role in the institution.

“This project brings us immense joy because it is not merely a building, it is a facility that transforms lives. With the comfort provided here, our students will be encouraged to remain on campus, concentrate on their studies, and thrive in a safe and conducive environment,” he said.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has disbursed N116 billion to cover institutional fees and upkeep allowances for students across the country.

This was disclosed to journalists in Abuja by the Managing Director of the Fund, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr.

Sawyerr said this was a milestone in the federal government’s commitment to affordable and inclusive tertiary education in the country.

According to him, N65 billion  has been paid directly to 239 government-owned institutions. including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, on behalf of students whose loan applications were approved.

In his own words, “We have been able to pay fees and upkeep for 624,000 students in 239 institutions – government-owned universities, polytechnics, colleges of education”.
On the monthly upkeep allowances, directly to the beneficiaries, he said, “We have paid out N51 billion as monthly upkeep. It is a lot of money and a lot of people have received the upkeep”.

Giving further breakdown on the progress of the scheme, the NELFUND boss added that, the Fund received a total of 1,067,000 loan applications. Out of the figure, 624,000 students were granted approval and have benefitted.

He added that NELFUND had continued to record high engagement of students’ applications on daily basis.

Sawyer emphasised that the education loan scheme is one of the flagship social investment initiatives of the Tinubu administration. It is fashioned to take away financial burdens from students in tertiary institutions, ensuring that no Nigerian is denied education due to lack of funds.

With the scheme gaining popularity and more number of applicants wanting to benefit, he reiterated his commitment to transparency and efficiency in managing NELFUND.

President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa to intensify negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) and not allow the members embark on further strikes.

Briefing newsmen after a meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, Alausa said the government was determined to ensure transparency and governance by providing data with a view to returning the nation’s varsities’ glory to what it used to be some 30-40 years ago globally.

Responding to question on what the government was doing to stop the universities teachers from returning to strike after the suspension of the warning strike about a week ago, the Minister said “As I told you the President has mandated us that he doesn’t want ASUU to go on strike, and we’re doing everything humanly possible to ensure that our students stay in school.

The last strike they went on for about 6 days was not really needed. We’re talking to them. We’ve met literally all their requirements.

“Now we’ve gone back to the negotiation table. We’re talking as he spoke to the leadership this morning. We will resolve this. And part of my visit today here is to also explain where we are with the ASUU strike to Mr. President and to extract more concession from Mr. President. In the education sector, we’re taking advantage of Mr. President because of his love, his fervent and benevolent love for education and human capital. 

And when you talk about human capital, you’re talking about health, education and social protection.”

On the government’s plan to reset Nigerian universities to old glory they had some 30-40 years ago, the Minister said “With what we launched today, the Federal Tertiary Institution Governance and Transparency Dashboard, we have all our public Institute tertiary institutions, universities, polytechnics, colleges of education receiving almost 100% federal government funding, we have to hold them accountable.

The Federal Ministry of Education today is playing its oversight role under tertiary institutions actively.

We have now mandated them to report data on student enrollment, the amount of budgetary allocation they get for personnel, capital and over and recurrent capital, a recurrent budget, the net fund, the type of fund intervention, both direct and indirect, the intervention from NELfund as well, the money they’re collecting from NELfund, as well as endowment and their grants, both local and international grants.

These are now publicly available information. We’re doing these to accomplish several things, improve transparencies, governance, and then bring back our tertiary institutions, more so our universities, to where they were before, 30 or 40 years ago, where several Nigerian universities are competing globally.

When Nigerian universities are part of the first top 100 universities in the world. You need all these data. You need people to sit in the comfort of their room to go to the university’s website or the Federal Minister of Education website to see this data.”