By Funmi Adeyemi/Okeoghene Oghenekaro
Abuja – Dr Abdullahi Baffa, the Executive Secretary, Tertiary Trust Fund (TETFund), on Monday expressed the fund’s determination to address challenges associated with assessing intervention funds by institutions in the country.
Baffa made this known during a meeting with Vice Chancellors, Reactors and Provost of all Public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in Abuja.
He said the meeting was to kick-start the intervention activities for 2017 discuss and arrive at agreeable positions on challenges.
The executive secretary said that the fund was being abused in the last couple of years.
“ We felt that we should look as some challenges faced as a fund and what you are facing as beneficiary institutions in assessing, utilizing and retiring the allocations that the fund is making available to you.
“All of us are victims as well as culprits. We are still battling with people who are parading themselves as vendors trying to buy, sell and deal with allocation letters.
“We are all victims and culprits because majority of us are willingly to collect such allocation letter and do business with people who are willing to sell to us.
“ I want to assure you that these people are gone. What we have to do is respect the provisions of the law,’’ he said.
Baffa added that the allocation of 2015 was the least in the last five to six years because of the abuse.
“The allocation for 2016 is more than three times what was given in 2015 because we did not allow the old way of doing things to continue,’’ he said.
Baffa said all institutions must be treated equally irrespective of size, location, saying that this was the surest way of ensuring the fund returned to its paths of pursuing its mandate.
He said TETFund was the sure tool needed to help the institutions get out of the present state of inadequate staff, paucity of funds, dilapidation and poor quality of graduates.
“I want to urge you while in this meeting to be as incisive as possible so that together we can be on the same page.
“ TETFund is the future of tertiary institutions, we must generously guide its mandate to ensure we realise our dreams,’’ Baffa said.
He noted that polytechnics in the country were not producing skilled and qualified artisans, saying manpower was still sourced from outside the country.
Baffa said that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the fund to check and provide the polytechnics with needed intervention to support the provision of equipment for laboratories, research and training.
He also noted that teachers in the country were unqualified and inadequate, saying “these teachers are products of our colleges of education.’’
Baffa, however, said that N691.362 million would be allocated to each Polytechnic for their 2016 intervention as against N427 million in 2015.
He said each College of Education will receive N671.057 million.