The newly appointed Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Arc. Sonny Echono, has said that the Nigerian education system requires massive investment to prepare its population for global competitiveness.
He made this known on Monday in Abuja during the handing over ceremony of the fund .
Echono who was the immediate past Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, acknowledged that the government is presently facing serious economic challenges hence the need to efficiently utilise the available resources.
He identified that the TETFund plays a major role in creating knowledge based economy so as to enable Nigeria meet her national demands.
He assured the fund’s commitment to Research &Development saying the seed fund for R&D in the agency’s 2022 budget will be progressively increased than previous years.
According to Echono, “there is no doubt that over the years TETFUND has established itself as a leading government agencies whose impact has been felt we shall continue to build in solid foundation even as we continue to improve on R&D”
He stressed that Nigeria must recognise the tertiary institutions as the hub of academic and excellence while efforts are increased on making Nigerian graduates more relevant as creators of wealth.
“We must create symbiotic relationship between the industry and the tertiary institutions to ensure seamless development of manpower”
The Tetfund Executive Secretary declared to work with critical stakeholders in the higher education sub sector saying he will initiate consultation with significant stakeholders to get responses on the resources committed into TETFUND .
“We will initiate critical consultation with stakeholders especially the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Non-academic staff and other unions including Committee of Vice Chancellors ,NAAT, SSANU and others to get feedback from tem to know how better to use judiciously the resources committed into the hands of TETFund.”
Echono acknowledged that the working conditions of university lecturers are bad , he said that the federal government will address this except for the constrains in resources.
“Yes we agree that the conditions they work is challenging we will address it but government is currently constrained.”
He appealed to the members of the ASUU to create opportunities for the government to address the issues in phases.
The Tetfund Executive Secretary stated that the long term solution to paucity of funds facing the sector is to improve on the economy and activate other sectors.
The outgoing Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Professor Elias Bogoro , described the handing over as an exceptional transition.
“We tried to uphold fidelity we also tried our best to meet the expectations of the beneficiary institutions as expressed in the law and we operate within the law.
“We tried to address a major challenge in the Nigeria university system which was weak research culture and we created a new standard.”
The handing over ceremony featured the symbolic exchange of notes and summaries of activities of TETFUND between 2014 and 2016 as well as 2018-2022.
Prof. Elias Bogoro was first appointed in 2014, by President Goodluck Jonathan and was disengaged after when he was re-appointed in 2016 for completion of tenure by President Muhammadu Buhari.
