Maryam Abeeb
Governor of Anambra State in South-East Nigeria, professor Charles Soludo has called for a strategic partnership with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFund, in the delivery of intervention projects in higher education institutions in the state.
Prof. Soludo, who made the call during a courtesy visit on the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Mr. Sonny Echono, in Abuja, said such collaboration would facilitate impactful driven investment in the State.
We want a partnership that will facilitate inter-agency, inter-governmental between the federal and the states as it were.
“At the end of the day, we have one country, one economy the man power needs is just for the same one national economy. The System is as strong as it’s weakest link and therefore am sure this, TETFUND emerges as a very critical intervention fund in our educational system and intervene not just within the ambits of the federal institutions, but also the state owned institutions as it were.
“Education we know is on the concurrent – the federal and state work together.”
Governor Soludo who avoided mentioning the interested areas of partnership with TETfund emphasised the place of Impact measurement saying it is very important.
“I will like us to work together in a whole lot of areas we are interested in and in some years to come, we will be able to say with partnership with TETFund we were able to deliver ABCD, that here are the impacts.”
Speaking further, Soludo commended TETFund for its various intervention projects across the country, adding that the three state-owned tertiary institutions in the state; Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, University, Anambra Polytechnic, Mgbakwu and College of Education, Nsugbe, are eager to welcome more of the Fund’s intervention projects.
The governor, however, expressed concern over the growing number of tertiary institutions in the country, saying government might find it difficult to adequately fund them in the future.
“With the tertiary institutions going the way they are now, there are still questions, still issues, we are not asking those questions but at some point we are going to ask whether or how the government will be able to fund or adequately fund the number or the plethora of institutions or the mechanism of our delivery, especially with the brick and mortar system that we have, there will be questions.
“But in the interim, before we get there, TETFund has been filling the gap in terms of infrastructure in our tertiary institutions. As you go from one higher institution to the other, (you see them) you have a way of branding them – the projects.”
The Governor said: “even if the Federal Government is to spend its entire capital budget on education it will not be enough to address all the issues.”
Responding, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Mr Echono said the Fund has continued to do a lot both in infrastructure and academic content development.
“In Anambra, you will see a lot of our presence, but I admit at the level of state institutions we need to do more.
“In the last 11 years, 35,000 academic staff have been trained in Master’s and PhDs, we have also done a lot in research component of our intervention….., we are also working on the employability of our graduates by linking our institutions with industries,” Echono said.
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
