85 percent of Nigerian varsities lack hostel accommodation -TETFUND
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Kashim Imam, says 85 percent of public varsities in Nigeria lacks hostel facilities.
Imam made this disclosure on Wednesday, in Gombe State University, at a hearing on trainings/utilization of staff intervention programme provisions with Masters and Doctorate degrees
He revealed that TETFUND would build over 160,000 hostels to shock the shortfall in 4 years, adding that aside sponsorship of scholars the board has identified 3 areas including power generation, provision of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and hostel accommodation.
According to Imam, this was based on revelations made by the secretary of National Universities Commission.
He said, “I was privileged to attend a briefing in the office of the honourable Minister of Education, Mal. Adamu Adamu, in the cause of which the National Secretary of the Universities Commission announced that hostel accommodation is just barely 15 percent across our institutions. Meaning 85 percent of all Nigerian students are not accommodated.
“We have taken up this as a challenge, we are rolling out a programme that will provide in 4 years the provision of 160,000 bedspaces across 100 institutions.
“Second area of focus is in the provision of ICT. TETFUND will deploy the necessary infrastructure that will facilitate E-learning across the various institutions. The next area of focus is the issue of power, TETFUND will partner another federal agency known as Rural Electrification Agency.”
While lauding the effort of the Federal Government, Imam said the commitment on 50 percent in 2 years and 100 percent in 4 years would boost the performance of education.
“Just last week at the world education summit in London, Mr President committed to an increase to 50 percent for the funding of education within 2 years.
“He has also committed to increase funding and spending by 100 percent within 4 years that is a laudable and tall order but I want to announce to all of us that we are more than prepared to meet these goals set by the president.
“Last year the budget of TETFUND was N220b am happy to inform you that for the year 2021, the president has approved a budget of N300 billion. The amount is fully funded, meaning that it is already in the bank,” he added.
Also speaking, Director of Academic Staff Training Development, Mohammed Suleiman, said prior to TETFUND intervention just about 40 percent of Nigerian lecturers had masters, and doctorate degrees.
“Before the intervention about 40 percent of Nigerian lecturers have PhD’s and masters and after the intervention the figure or percentage raised to about 90 percent. So we can clearly see the impact of the intervention,” Suleiman added.
