How to shore up varsities’ funds, by Semenitari

At a time where universities and sundry tertiary institutions are grappling with dire paucity of funds, collaborations with other institutions to grow the pool of endowments and grants, have the capacity to turn things around for them.

Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, while speaking on the topic, “Endowments, Grants and Corporate Social Responsibility as Funding Options for Tertiary and Research Institutions in Nigeria” at the Registry Eighth Annual Lecture of the Federal University of Technology Akure, (FUTA), said universities and other tertiary institutions would do well to set up non-profit, wholly owned subsidiaries to manage their endowments, seek potential donors and possible areas of interest that could attract research funding.

Semenitari, who emphasised the fact that bankrolling education can never be effectively done by government alone, further explained that universities can attract funds through endowments, partnerships with the private sector, and wealthy individuals who have integrity, among others.

She encouraged tertiary institutions to engage in critical alumni relations that would attract “give back” from their products as alumni of universities have important roles to play in funding their alma mata if given the opportunity.

She lamented that Nigerian higher institutions have not explored the huge potential in the sector like their foreign counterparts, urging them to expand their research and educational frontiers, in order to raise interest of potential donors.

On efforts by the commission to develop manpower and infrastructure in universities she said; “The NDDC runs a robust educational directorate that focuses on appropriate and sustainable manpower development.  Currently, the commission is constructing students’ hostels as part of its regional projects across the nine mandate states.  We don’t only build, we also equip and handover to beneficiary institutions. The objective is to save the schools from that burden, thereby freeing scarce resources for other pressing needs, while at the same time creating an enabling scholarly environment for students.”

Vice Chancellor, Professor Adebiyi Daramola, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, (Academic), Professor Olatunde Arayela, in his remarks said, “The economic reality staring us in the face in our dear country has shown that stakeholders in education sector need to device creative ways of finding alternative funding for education. The survival of this sector is a challenge to all of us.”