By Felix Khanoba
The Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, has called on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to execute more projects in higher education institutions in the state.
The governor made the call when he led a delegation of Kaduna State government on a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, on Monday in Abuja.
The governor, who appreciated the efforts of TETFund in ensuring that tertiary education institutions in Kaduna and others across the country are provided with relevant infrastructure and other forms of interventions, and said he has been following such efforts even as a senator.
“As someone who has been in the National Assembly until a few months ago, as a senator, I followed all the progress made by the TETFund in trying to support the development of education in particular, across the country, and I’m here to say that we’re highly impressed by what tatted on our door.
“Of course, we’re also here to ask for more support and intervention in Kaduna State. Of course, Kaduna State has done a lot in supporting the TETFund. Only recently, we have been able to give the TETFund one of the most important pieces of land in Kaduna to build their zonal office.
“And I’m happy to say that we will support to ensure that you have all the necessary cooperation from our building departments to ensure that they have been able to progress without any hindrance.”
While outlining the areas of need for the state’s institutions, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Prof Muhammad Sani Bello, said all the state-owned institutions were in need of interventions.
Bello said in other to provide more access to students who may want to go in for NCE programme, the state has established a campus of the state’s college of education and that it requires intervention to be able to fast track the development of the campus.
“Another area has to do with security. The college of education Gidan Waya in the Southern part of Kaduna has been facing a lot of security challenges due to lack of fencing and other facilities that will provide security for both students and staff of the institution. That also is an area we need intervention, ” the Commissioner said.
Responding, Echono, who congratulated the governor on his victory in the March governorship election in Kaduna, said TETFund recently disbursed N550 million to the Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya to address its security challenges.
Echono, who noted that the disbursement was beyond the normal allocations, disclosed that the fund also disbursed N500 million to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for the completion of one projection, in addition to making it a centre of excellence.
According to him, the same amount was also given to Kaduna State University to complete some projects in its Kafanchan campus, adding that the fund will expedite action to complete some projects in the university which earlier had challenges.
The TETFund boss assured the state government that one of the public tertiary institutions in the state will benefit from the TETFund special high impact intervention in 2024, after the cycle of six years since the state last benefited.
He further pledged to look into the appeal lodged by the state governor to assist the Nuhu Bamali polytechnic Zaria in expanding its programmes through the building of a faculty of agriculture.
“This year already, we made some special allocation beyond the normal allocations that all institutions get. ABU Zaria for example, again, not only was it recognised as a centre of excellence, where we want to have a special centre in the area of education, but we also gave them some additional fund about 500 million to complete one project.
“The same amount was also given to Kaduna State University to complete some projects in your Kafanchan campus. The College of Education you mentioned, that had issue of security, I can confirm to you that in matter of weeks ago, or some days ago, we released N550 million to them to address the issue of security; that’s the Kaduna State College of Education in Gidan Waya.
“There is a sequence that we designed for the special high impact projects on zonal basis and I know the Hon commissioners has been following. So, saying that next year should be the turn of Kaduna State. I will check and know it’s definitely either next year or the year after the special high impact will be in Kaduna.
“I think the last time we were there was 2019 and we have a recycle of five years. We do it one per state. There’s equity in what we do here that when a state benefits, from a particular zone, it goes to other states before it comes back to that state.
“Especially when we had the North West zone with the unfair decision of having seven states. So, what we try to do is to address that by limiting it to six to have some degree of parity. So that cycle I think Kudana State should be coming on board now for special high impact,” he said.
Echono described Kaduna as one of the states that the fund has enjoyed the most support, adding that Kaduna hosts the North West headquarters of TETFund, adding that it is not by accident as the state used to be the headquarters of the entire northern region of Nigeria.
According to him, the Kaduna State Government allocated a very prime location for the fund’s headquarters with a building on it and that the contract for the construction projects will be awarded in the next one month.
