Varsity tasks govt on TETFUND scheme

SAMUEL Adegboyega University, Ogwa in Edo State has lent its support to agitation by private universities to benefit from the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) by calling on the Federal Government to allow the affected institutions participate in the scheme with a view to cushioning their financial challenges.

The Visitor, Pastor (Dr.) Gabriel Olutola, made the appeal at the weekend during the school’s maiden convocation ceremony where it 58 graduated students.

There has been increased agitation by privately owned higher institutions to be part of the federal incentive. Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo was once quoted as saying in Benson Idahosa University (BIU) also in Edo State that for private universities and polytechnics to benefit from TETFUND, the law setting it up would have to be reviewed. And he was quoted too to have said that he had also set up a committee to look into the issue shortly before he left office in 2007.

“Extending Federal Government’s support to private universities is what we have advocated for some time now. Private universities were established as intervention efforts of private individuals and corporate organisations to complement the government in providing the teeming youths access to education which existing public universities are not satisfying.”