Victoria Mgbanwa
The Chairman of the House of Representatives committee on Tertiary Education TrustFund, Mariam Onuoha has emphasized the need for effective monitoring of funds allocated to TETFUND.
She further noted that the committee must ensure that allocations assigned to TETFund are utilized judiciously.
Onuoha stated this during an oversight visit to Tertiary Education TrustFund (Tetfund) office on Thursday in Abuja.
She urged the Executive Secretary of the Commission to speed up the process of fund allocation to Tertiary institution.
Onuoha who was at the commission to see how they had performed in the 2022–2023 budget, in line with the budgetary provision said, “Why do we have a preponderance of assessing funds by most of these institutions? The committee frowns at a situation where funds meant for tertiary institutions were not accessed by those they were meant for”, she said.
The Executive Secretary of The Commission, Sonny Echono, explained that the commission has expended about N3.8 billion on 1,500 Nigerian scholars studying abroad, under its academic training programme as a bailout fund to cushion the effect of the current exchange rate of the naira.
He said, “The high exchange rate caused some challenges for TETFund-sponsored scholars as many of them requested extra funding, adding that the issue has also resulted in a drop in the number of beneficiaries of the Fund’s academic training programme in foreign institutions.
“Many of the institutions came back to TETFund expressing concerns over the payment system.
But we now pay directly to the institution as part of our intervention. So CBN now transfers in bulk to different institutions for those scholars.
“We have taken care of 1500 scholars with a total of N3.8 billion expended. We identify a cut-off point for those who will be eligible for the scholarship.”
He further praised the committee to the commission which has seen a rise in education tax collection from 2.5 percent to 3 percent.
He further highlighted different projects and interventions of the agency that are making positive impacts in the country.
