Education
UNILAG, 11 Others Get TETFund Allocations for Research
By Adedapo Adesanya
Twelve universities have received allocation letters for the take-off of their Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Centre of Excellence (TCOE).
This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Mr Suleiman Bogoro, while presenting the letters to the Vice-Chancellors of the selected institutions in Abuja.
He charged the institutions on the implementation of its own approved TCOE to address specific national development challenges by preparing professionals for the future.
He also disclosed that the board would fund the centres with a grant of N1 billion each for five years to enable them to attain national aspirations.
This followed approval by President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this year that will spur the first set of TCOE to take up research in their respective regions for national development.
He said two universities were selected from each geopolitical zone of the country to bridge the gap between researchers and users, as well as stimulating and strengthening triple-helix relationships.
In the South West, the University of Ibadan will host TCOE in Multi-Disciplinary Studies and the University of Lagos on TCOE in Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management.
For the South East region, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike will host TCOE in Root Crop Research and Development and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka to host TCOE in Agricultural and Engineering Translational Studies.
Mr Bogoro also named the University of Benin to host TCOE in Aquaculture and Food Technology, while the University of Uyo will host TCOE in Computational Intelligence in South-South region.
Meanwhile, in the North Central, University of Abuja would host TCOE in Public Governance and Leadership and University of Jos to host TCOE in Food Security.
North East has Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, to host TCOE in Food Security and the University of Maiduguri will host TCOE in Arid Zone Research and Development.
He added that in North West, Usman Dan-Fodio University, Sokoto will host TCOE in Urology and Nephrology, while Bayero University, Kano will host TCOE in Renewable Energy.
According to him, the relevance of COEs for capacity building in developing countries cannot be overemphasised.
He said COEs were potent instruments for nation-building as far as they have the potential to realise human resource development.
He said “The conceptual framework for Centres of Excellence is unlikely to be unfamiliar, alien or even novel to most of you here. Nevertheless, a Strategic Framework and Establishment Guidelines for TETFund Centres of Excellence, as approved by the TETFund Board of Trustees will be made available to all of you.
“Each selected institution is expected to implement its own approved TCOE, with the objective to address a specific national development challenge through the preparation of professionals, applied research and associated outreach activities to partner, especially community services.
“Within that prism, institutions will have the autonomy to implement their own institution-specific proposals to enhance capacity to deliver national high-quality training to address development challenges.”
He said the major objective of establishing the Centres was among others, to support strategic and application-oriented research and expertise with potential industrial application.
Also, the chairman, TETFund Board of Trustees, Mr Kashim Ibrahim-Imam said the fund’s BOT was committed to advancing the tertiary education in all ramifications.
Ibrahim-Iman promised that the fund would continue to sustain the process of research in the country, noting that an additional 12 universities would be established by 2021.
He said, “We want you to invest at least 70 per cent of the research grant in safe and high-yielding financial investment.”
Responding on behalf of Vice-Chancellors of the benefiting universities, Prof. Lilian Salami, Vice-Chancellor, University of Benin, promised to live to expectations in delivering the task accorded to them.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) has denied claims of mismanagement in disbursing student loan funds.
This development comes after the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it was investigating alleged corruption in the disbursement of the funds.
In a statement by the fund’s Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, NELFund said ICPC’s comment was taken out of context.
“These reports, which suggest misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, are entirely false, grossly irresponsible, and deeply damaging to the integrity of an institution established to deliver financial hope to millions of Nigerians,” Mr Oluwatuyi said.
“All institutional fees are paid directly to verified institutions, while upkeep allowances go into the verified bank accounts of eligible students,” she said.
“The reports circulating in the public space are based on outdated figures and previous interventions that predate our operations.”
Equally, the ICPC has clarified its earlier statement on the student loan.
The institution’s spokesman, Mr Demola Bakare, said the agency’s move to investigate the disbursement of the funds was due to claims that 51 schools were involved in illegal deductions and exploitation related to the NELFund scheme.
“The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients,” the agency’s statement partly read.
In an update, Mr Bakare clarified that: “Unintentionally, the word ‘NOT’ was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding the Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion had been established.
“We admit that this is not the case, indeed, we accept that the same part of the sentence also contradicted the whole paragraph. The paragraph ought to read: ‘The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.’
“For avoidance of doubt, the commission has only established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND. The impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage; the investigation would have to move into the receiving institutions and persons before any reasonable deductions could be made.”
It was claimed that out of the N100 billion approved for disbursement, about N71.2 billion was unaccounted for, prompting an investigation by the ICPC.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has clarified that it has not affirmed claims that about N71.2 billion of the N100 billion disbursed as student loans under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme were unaccounted for.
Recall that there were reports that no fewer than 51 tertiary institutions were implicated in illegal deductions and exploitation related to the NELFUND scheme.
The schools were accused of making unauthorized deductions ranging from N3,500 to N30,000 from each student’s institutional fees received through the loan fund.
The ICPC had commenced a probe into the matter and in a statement on Thursday, it said investigation revealed that the total money received by NELFUND as of March 19, 2024, was N203.8 billion, with N44.2 billion disbursed to 299 institutions, covering 293,178 students.
In the statement, ICPC said it “confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.”
Some hours later, after the revelations raised dust, the agency clarified that it made an error in the statement, noting that, “The paragraph ought to read The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.”
“The general public is urged to exercise patience as thorough investigations require time and ample resources,” the new statement signed by its spokesperson, Demola Bakare, said, stressing that, “Our investigations are still ongoing, and there are no indictments yet.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos, has announced that its 2025 convocation ceremony would take place on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
According to the official schedule, the convocation lecture will hold on Monday, May 5, at 11 am at the Kesington Adebutu Media Resource Centre, located within the institute’s premises.
The main convocation ceremony is slated for Tuesday, May 6, also at 11 am, and will take place at the NIJ premises.
The convocation will cover graduating students from the classes of 2022 through 2024 across its National Diploma, Higher National Diploma, and Post Graduate Diploma programmes.
Business Post gathered that students who excelled during their academic pursuits at the monotechnic would be recognised and awarded for their feats.
Graduating students are expected to receive their certificates immediately after the convocation.
The event is expected to bring together the management, academic staff, students, alumni, and dignitaries from the media and communication sectors to celebrate the achievements of the graduating students.
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