The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Mr. Sonny Echono, announced that in the outgoing year of 2023, over 70 projects spanning 17 tertiary institutions in 11 states across the nation have been inaugurated.
Echono expressed the agency’s intent to double this figure in 2024, citing increased Federal Government funding to the education sector, provided that beneficiary institutions adhere to prescribed procedures.
Speaking on Monday at the inauguration of two projects sponsored by TETFund and executed on the campus of Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke, under the merged Annual Intervention of 2017 and 2019, Echono, represented by TETFund’s Director of Human Resources, Mr. Okunola Kolapo, stated, “This event forms part of an ongoing series of project commissioning that the Fund had embarked upon this year in our beneficiary institutions spread across the country.”
“So far in this year alone, over 70 projects have been commissioned in 17 beneficiary institutions across 11 States of the Federation, and the count is still on,” he added.
The two projects formally inaugurated on the day were executed between 2019 and 2022 at a total cost of N361,232,123.88. These include a storey block of offices for the Office of Technology Management (OTM) and a 600-seater capacity Auditorium.
Echono emphasized that the financing of these projects by TETFund demonstrates the Federal Government’s commitment to providing necessary physical infrastructure in the nation’s public tertiary institutions, aligning with the “Renewed Hope” Agenda of President Bola Ahmed.
During the inauguration, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, representing Osun East in the Senate, assured that the Senate would persist in supporting the federal government through legislation to enhance funding for the education sector.
In their separate remarks, the chairman of the College’s Governing Council, Diran Odeyemi, and the Rector, Dr. Sunday Adegoke, called for more support from the agency in the area of infrastructural development.
