The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has urged institutions to strengthen research and development activities and explore entrepreneurship initiatives for self-sufficiency and sustainability.
Executive Secretary Arch. Sonny Echono emphasised this at the 26th seminar of Nigerian Academy of Education in Abuja.
Echono stressed, “Institutions should devise innovative ways of engaging in entrepreneurship initiatives and explore commercial opportunities to generate revenues for self-sufficiency.”
Speaking on the paper titled: “Funding of Tertiary Education in Nigeria,” Echono said the Fund has funded over 5,525 physical infrastructural projects and provided over 576 faculty/departmental libraries in tertiary institutions across Nigeria. stated, “The projects were designed to support impactful research contributing to national developmental efforts and tackling global challenges.
“In the area of capacity building, TETFund has sponsored 23,271 academic staff of public tertiary institutions for PhD programmes. Out of this, 4,598 were sponsored to foreign institutions, while 18,673 attended institutions within Nigeria.
“Likewise, 15,977 academic staff were sponsored for Masters degree programme. 3,525 were in foreign institutions, while 12,452 undertook their studies in local institutions within the country. In addition, 911 scholars were sponsored for Benchwork in foreign institutions and 872 academic staff for Post-Doctoral programme specially targeted at strengthening scientific research capacity of the country.
“Also, 31,071 academic staff of tertiary institutions were sponsored to attend international conferences in foreign countries, while 46,604 were sponsored for local conferences, bringing the total scholars sponsored for academic conferences to 77,675. Furthermore, 110,432 academic staff of colleges of education were sponsored to conduct supervision of teaching practice across the country.”
He also noted the Fund’s support for research and innovation initiatives such as Research for Impact (R4i) and TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) programmes.
Despite TETFund’s positive impact, Echono highlighted the need for additional funding to provide quality tertiary education.
