BUHARI APPROVED N320.3 BILLION FUND FOR TERTIARY INSTITUTION AFTER 30 YEARS

The largest intervention fund for tertiary institutions ever approved by Buhari is N320.3 billion

President Muhammadu Buhari has given the go-ahead for the distribution of N320.3 billion as intervention funds for the nation's public tertiary institutions.

At a session with the leaders of the recipient institutions on Wednesday in Abuja, Sonny Echono, executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), announced the approval.

According to Echono, each university will receive N1,154,732,133.00 for the 2023 intervention cycle, while each polytechnic and college of education will receive N699,344,867.00 and N800,862,602 correspondingly.

"I am pleased to inform you that Mr. President has approved the 2023 disbursement guidelines in the total sum of N320,345,040, 835 (three hundred and twenty billion, three hundred and forty-five million, forty thousand, eight hundred and thirty five naira only). On the basis of this. each university shall get, for the Year 2023 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,154,732,133.00," he said.

"This comprises N954,732,123.00 as annual direct disbursement and N200million as zonal intervention. Similarly, each polytechnic shall get N699,344,867.00 comprising of N569,344,807.00 as annual direct disbursement and N130million as zonal intervention, while each college of education shall get N800,862,602 comprising of N670,862,602.00 as annual direct disbursement and N130million as zonal intervention."

Echono said the figure "represents the highest disbursement to each beneficiary institution since the inception of TETFund."

According to the executive secretary of the TETFund, Buhari greatly enhanced funding for tertiary education.

In comparison to the N1.249 trillion distributed from the fund's creation in 1993 to 2014, he said that N1.702 trillion had been distributed to public universities, polytechnics, and institutions of education between 2015 and the present.

"This remarkable success is due to sustained efforts at expanding and increasing efficiency of collection of the education tax and added impetus is the gracious approval of Mr. President for an increase in education tax from 2.0% to 2.5% in the year 2021," he added.