…Says country becoming hub for skilled labour
The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Mr. Sonny Echono, has said Nigeria’s education system is not a pushover among its counterparts around the world.
He added that Nigeria was becoming a hub for marketable skilled labour globally.
Echono, who stated this at the weekend, commended the government of President Bola Tinubu for some innovative policies in the country’s education sector, and promised that TETFund will not relent in the discharge of its responsibilities to the country.
Echono, who spoke at the Vanguard Newspaper Personality of the Year Awards where he bagged the Education Icon Award said “despite the odds and the challenges, products of our education system are not push overs. They can compete with their peers globally.
“Now, we have a number of our youths working for multinational companies while in the comfort of their homes in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is gradually becoming a hub for skilled labour that people across the world are seeking.”
Speaking further, the TETFund boss said: “While we have a youthful population, many of the advanced nations are experiencing declining or stagnant population.
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“Many of those countries have aging population and they need skilled youthful labour to replenish their populations. That is why education is vital.
“I must commend the administration of President Bola Tinubu for some policies that are changing the face of the sector for good.
“In TETFund, we have supported over 40,000 people to do postgraduate programmes both locally and abroad.
“In other not to allow for any gap in the facilities those sent aboard are trained with and what we have here, we are investing heavily on upgrading facilities on our campuses.
“We are also ensuring that projects are completed as soon as possible because we don’t want inflation to catch up with the costs of those projects. Monitoring has been further strengthened. The impact of TETFund on our campuses can be seen by all.”
On whether TETFund is not being overburdened as more public tertiary institutions are set up, Echono said prudent management of available resources had been helpful in the discharge of their duties at TETFund.
He said: “We get more institutions to care for, also we get more resources too from the increase in Education Tax. But more importantly, we are managing well the resources at our disposal.”
He dedicated the award to President Tinubu, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, staff and management of the TETFund, and noted that the award would further propel him and his team to do more.
Echono added that TETFund would continue to execute legacy projects that would change the landscape of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions and solicited the continued support of the management of such institutions to ensure seamless execution of the projects.
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