Kebbi commends TETFund on institutions’ funding

GOVERNOR of Kebbi State, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has commended the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for its various intervention efforts in developing the higher education sector and sustaining the funding of tertiary institutions in the country.

Bagudu, who gave the commendation while on a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Prof. Bogoro in his office yesterday in Abuja where he declared that Kebbi State had benefited tremendously from the TETFund interventions, said the agency had gone a long way in creating enabling environment that had moved the education sector forward.

He said: “TETFund is an institution that has done well and I consider myself as an advocate for the institution and certainly, I will continue to be an advocate for the institution and I think coming here is one of the ways of showing support and showing that I believe in it.

“What more can TETFund do for us in Kebbi? They have done a lot for us; they have done a lot for all the states in Nigeria. They supported the establishment of the new federal university in Kebbi, the state university, the federal polytechnic and our college of education. Before then, they have supported a lot of primary and secondary education before the amendment of the TETFund Act. What more can they do for us?”

Speaking further, he noted that as the number one rice producer in Nigeria, the state introduced various programmes to boost the production of the crop.

“Nigerian rice farmers can feed Nigerian if given adequate support”, he said.

In his address earlier, Prof. Bogoro expressed optimism that more Nigerian universities would go up in ranking globally if the current infrastructural intervention efforts are sustained by the Federal Government.

The Executive Secretary explained that most public tertiary institutions in the country were lagging behind other nations because they were unable to meet two-thirds of accreditation requirements, particularly on infrastructural and human capacity development.

He said that the Fund has intervened in the Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, the Waziri Umar Polytechnic in Birnin Kebbi, the College of Education in Argungun as well as the Federal University; promising that TETFund was determined to strengthen the institutions in the state.