House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, has called for the sustenance of funding for tertiary institutions across the country.
The committee said rather than scrapping TETFUND, it should improved upon and sustained.
Chairman of the committee, Miriam Onuoha stated this on Thursday in Abakaliki.
She spoke at the permanent site of the Ebonyi State University, EBSU, during the inauguration of three new TETFUND projects in the university.
She described TETFUND as the life wire of tertiary education in the country.
She expressed hope that President Bola Tinubu will not support the call by some persons to scrap the fund.
Onuoha averred that if TETFUND is scrapped, many people will be jobless as, according to her, the fund has created a lot of jobs for Nigerians.
She said: “TETFUND has become the life wire of tertiary education in Nigeria and deserves to be sustained.
“TETFUND also has a host of staff and zonal offices spread across the country. I want to say that if it is scrapped, it will lead to loss of jobs.
“I believe that the president is a father and he is a listening president and he has listened to the reports just as the bill is being read today for a second time in the House of Representatives.
“TETFUND sponsored over 41,600 lecturers for postgraduate studies in 13 years When it gets to the committee stage, I will be one of those who will champion that you don’t throw away a baby with the bathing water.
“All that needs to be done, all that has been complained by stakeholders about substandard projects, abandonment, delay in accessing projects. All these are the reasons government and the legislature embarked on oversight”.
Executive Secretary of TETFUND, represented by Babatunde Olajide said the three inaugurated projects are annual interventions of years 2016-2019 (Merged), 2021-2022 (Merged) and 2020 amounting to N1,339,791,726.06, all delivered successfully in line with the TETFund’s guidelines.
Governor Francis Nwifuru, represented by his Deputy, Patricia Obila commended TETFUND for the infrastructural development in higher institutions across the country.
