PRESIDENT BUHARI INAUGURATES TETFund SPONSORED PROJECTS IN NDA, AFIT, KADUNA POLY & KADUNA VARSITY.

President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned projects financed by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in Four (4) institutions across Kaduna State,

The President who was represented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Aliyu Wamakko, commissioned the State-of-the-Art projects at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA),

Senator Wamakko who was excited by the quality of the projects at the commissioned, expressed profound appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for the opportunity to represent him and perform the inauguration of the iconic projects on his behalf.

In his address, he said “It is important to commend and appreciate the President for his unwavering support to the development of the education sector, and particularly in this case, TETFund. You would agree with me that his support for the intervention activities of TETFund has in no small measure contributed to the success stories of the Fund and its beneficiary institutions have continued to record,”.

Speaking further, he commended the Heads of the institutions, management, staff and students for the developmental strides at the institutions. He also congratulated and commended the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny S.T Echono and his team for their effort in effectively discharging the mandate of the Fund for the continuous development of public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

He said education plays a critical and vital role in the socio-economic development of nations and therefore, the commissioning of these projects at the Institutions would in no doubt further enhance teaching and learning and also improve academic standards.

The Lawmaker promised to continue to provide necessary support towards making the nation’s educational institutions globally competitive for economic and technological development of the country.

“It is on record that through the support of the Federal Government, TETFund has performed excellently well in the provision of physical infrastructure, support for Academic Staff Training and Development, Book Publication, ICT, Research and Development amongst others in public tertiary educational institutions across the country,”.

Also speaking during the commissioning of projects at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), the Commandant, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Yusuf, said the projects include a CBT Hall, Faculty of Management and Military Science buildings.

He said, “the institution received over N8.2 billion support from TETFund in the last seven years. About 6 billion of the money went into infrastructural development while N2.2 billion was spent on training, research and publication, Library and ICT, among others.

The Federal Government had also invested in manpower development of Cadets, which by implication goes to the development of the entire Armed Forces of Nigeria, adding that NDA currently has 9 ongoing TETFund projects from merged funds for 2019 to 2022 interventions. This include 800 rooms accommodation for Cadets, which would be ready in a few days, the Commandant disclosed.

The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, who was ably represented by the Director, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E), Arc. Babatunde Olajide, reiterated that, “ it is our commitment at TETFund to ensure that value is obtained for funds allocated to the benefitting institutions to aid teaching, learning and research and by implication, make them globally competitive.”

He said the event marked the beginning of major TETFund activities in 2023, as a total of 162 iconic TETFund projects would be commissioned in 54 tertiary institutions spread across 28 states of the federation.

Arc. Olajide explained that the financing of the projects by TETFund is a clear demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to the provision of requisite physical infrastructure in the nation’s public tertiary institutions.”

He admonished the institutions to ensure proper maintenance of the structures to avoid early dilapidation in view of limited resources to reconstruct new ones and reassured them of TETFund’s continued intervention and support.

Some TETFund projects were also inaugurated at the Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna State University and the Polytechnic, Kaduna.

At AFIT, Department of Cyber Security, Student Hostel of 2020 Zonal Intervention and Students Hostel of the 2021 Zonal Intervention were also commissioned.