By Maryam Abeeb
Th Management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has reacted to reports on some media platforms crediting the Executive Secretary of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje as flaying the Fund’s investments in Research and Development.
In the said reports, the NBTE boss was quoted during the commissioning of NBTE Research and Development Innovation Exhibition Hall recently in Kaduna as calling for a paradigm shift by allowing polytechnics to key into the research and development project of TETFund to end the era of university research ending in journal publications.
In a statement, the Director Public Affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi stated that in view of the vantage position of Prof. Bugaje as a member of the Board of Trustees of TETFund, representing the NBTE, specifically, Polytechnics in Nigeria, we are of the opinion that it is likely that the ES NBTE may have been quoted out of context, since NBTE should not be seen to publicly attack Universities and TETFund in an area of their priority and competence.
It’s reads,” however, it may suffice to restate for the avoidance of doubt that TETFund’s R&D Grants come under two platforms, namely the Institution Based Research (IBR) and the National Research Fund (NRF); and both grants are open to the three categories of the Fund’s beneficiary institutions viz. Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of education.
“To demonstrate the recognition of the polytechnic sector as a critical stakeholder in the R&D and Innovation chain, the Fund only recently established six Centres of Excellence in six Federal polytechnics alongside 6 others in six Federal colleges of education across the six geopolitical zones, in addition to the 12 existing ones in universities across the country, with the aim of supporting strategic and application-oriented research and expertise with potential industrial applications, among others.
“As a follow-up, the Fund also organized a capacity building workshop for administrators of the Centres of Excellence in January 2022, where Prof. Bugaje commended the efforts of Prof. Bogoro for his passion for the institutionalization of Research and Development in Nigeria, adding that his name would be written in gold in the country’s academic community.”
