TETFund: ASUU Queries Distribution Of N320.3B Among Tertiary Institutions

The distribution of the released N320.3 billion by the Federal Government among tertiary institutions across the country has been queried by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)), Sonny Echono, during the Fund's annual strategic planning workshop with all heads of institutions in Lagos on Wednesday, announced the approval of the fund by President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2023 intervention for public tertiary institutions.

According to Echono, each university will get a sum of N1,154,732,133.00; polytechnics will get N699,344,867.00, while colleges of education will get N800,862,602.

The President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, lauded the Federal Government for the released fund.

Osodeke, however, stated that N132 billion of the fund had not been accounted for, calling for a redistribution of the fund such that 90% goes to tertiary institutions. 

“It (N320bn fund) is a good development, this is part of what we struggle for in 1994, it is our struggle, but there are issues we need to sort out.

“When you check the allocation of about N1.2 billion to universities and others, you find out that the total for all the universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education come to just about N186 billion allocated out of about N320, leaving a balance of N132 billion that has not been accounted for. What are we using that N132 billion which is 41% of the total amount of money? Is it for bureaucracy or for what?

“This is what has been happening in TETFund and I think there is a need to examine what exactly is happening at TETFund.

"The idea of this TETFund when it was negotiated by ASUU was that this money will come and be distributed to the universities, not keeping 41% for whatever purpose.

“I think we need a redistribution of this fund to ensure that it accounts for 90% of what has been approved to go to universities, polytechnic and not kept as bureaucracy or whatever. You need to tell the public what TETFund is doing with the balance of N132 billion,” Osodeke said.

The ASUU don also expressed dissatisfaction with the government's reaction since the eight-month strike was called.

He stated that the government is yet to call a meeting since the strike was called off and the issues persist.