TETFund urges institutions to access intervention funds

THE executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Dr Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, has pledged to make the processes of accessing the intervention funds open at all times, and urged the beneficiary institutions to ensure that their allocations are promptly accessed.

Baffa said at least 26 federal and state tertiary educational institutions in the North-West geopolitical zone of the country had benefitted from the ongoing sensitisation and awareness exercise being carried out by TETFund on the ease of access to the intervention fund.

The director, corporate affairs and public relations, Mr Benn Ebikwo, in a statement in Abuja also noted that the sensitisation exercise was in line with the determination of the TETFund executive secretary to make all processes for the agency’s interventions open and known to all stakeholders.

This is coming as a follow-up to the Access Clinic organised by the agency to tertiary institutions a few months ago, after the discovery by the executive secretary that billions of naira allocated to some institutions had not been accessed for one reason or the other.

Baffa, who led his team to the states in the North-West as the fourth geo-political zone to be visited, told participants at the various campuses of the institutions visited that the seminar became necessary to get rid of all the encumbrances encountered in accessing intervention allocations from TETFund.

He said that some of the encumbrances were as a result of lack of information, distorted or outright wrong information and unnecessary ambiguity created by some desk officers and staff of beneficiary institutions.

He said the seminar would now make all processes open to all stakeholders in the various academic communities.

Baffa insisted that his management was committed to ensuring that beneficiaries adhere strictly to the established guidelines and procedures for smooth running of the TETFund operations necessary for maximum impact.

He further explained that the seminar was not only to clear grey areas through a detailed presentation of all the requirements for each of the intervention lines but also to enhance a more cordial and effective collaboration between the beneficiaries and management of the Fund.

During the sensitization workshops, teams from TETFund drawn from the relevant departments for the various intervention lines as well as from the Internal Audit Unit of the Fund made presentations, showing the audience how to comply with the guidelines of all TETFund interventions.

The papers presented at each of the venue of the seminar were from the Project Monitoring Department, Department of Monitoring and Evaluation, Department of Academic Staff Training and Development (AST&D), Department of Education Support Services and Internal Audit Unit (IAU).

Several questions, reactions and observations arose from the academic and non-academic staff as well as union members who were eager to get answers and clarifications on issues affecting them individually and collectively as institutions.