Following the recent allocation of about N213billion for the 2017 Intervention activities, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has commenced Project Defence and Access Clinic for all public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in Nigeria.
Already, some of the some of the managers of the institutions, who have featured in the exercise, are commending the Management of TETFund led by the Executive Secretary, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa for the wonderful initiative aimed at easing allocation and accessing of funds.
Speaking during the Project Defence and Access Clinic taking place in the Boardroom of TETFund, the Executive Secretary took heads of each beneficiary institution through the Intervention Lines of TETFund, pointing out what is expected for each stage of the intervention.
Alongside all the Directors and Heads of Department that are in charge of each intervention line of TETFund, the Executive Secretary held discussion with each head of institution and areas of difficulties were addressed to enable the institutions access their allocations, both for the outstanding years and the current allocation.
TETFund’s Director, Corporate Affairs and Public Relations ,Benn Ebikwo, who made these known in a statement on Tuesday, also explained that the Access Clinic was “simply an opportunity for the benefitting institutions to come with all their records concerning allocations, projects, interventions that are outstanding or that they are having difficulty in implementing and a discussion is held with the team from the institution and management of TETFund towards an agreeable outcome to solve the problem.”
For the Executive Secretary, the heads of institutions must ensure that they enforce the contents of their legal agreement with their respective contractors so as not to encourage them in delaying TETFund sponsored projects.
According to him, the projects for all the institutions are time bound and they all have timeline for each deliverable, urging the institutions to quickly make their submissions and access the funds.
Dr. Baffa further told the beneficiaries that since TETFund is the sole approving authority for all TETFund allocations to the institutions, it will not be in the interest of any institution to incur debt without the necessary approval for such project.
He took time to explain why some projects or proposals are sent back to the institutions, while pointing out ways the institutions can encourage academics to key into some of the interventions especially in the areas of Journals, Manuscript, Research and other non-physical project interventions.
Already, most of the institutions that have appeared on the first day which commenced on Monday have given assurance that will be accessing their funds within the next few months, pointing out that the interface between the management of TETFund and that of the institutions, afforded them the rare opportunity of speaking face to face, and sorting out grey areas in specific project implementations.
Stating that the move by TETFund to hold the Access Clinic was novel and laudable, the Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun said many issues were now clearer given that both teams spoek face to face and have extracted commitment for speedy implementation and execution of TETFund projects.
Prof. Ajibefun further promised the TETFund management team that he will be going back to prepare properly for all outstanding allocation and projects so as to complete them within the timeline and commence access the recent intervention for 2017 activities.
The Vice Chancellor also presented his plans for 2017 and how the university intends to spend the intervention allocation from TETFund. Questions were asked and areas that may be difficult were discussed and the way forward proffered.
Basically, the Project Defence is an avenue where the institutions are expected to present a brief background to the project being proposed, and this should be situated within the general mandate of TETFund as well as indicating the relevance of the project to the Academic Brief, Masterplan and Strategic Plan of the institution.
The institutions are also expected to justify the reason for the intended projects so as not to commence a project for the mere reason that there is funding. This the institution will do by showing the opportunity the project will create, or the problem it is going to address as well as its impact on the problem of teaching, learning and research in the institution.
Aside the goals and objectives of the projects, the Scope and Deliverables, Project Timelines and Estimates are to be presented and defended, so that once the projects are approved, they will be delivered within stipulated time as all bottlenecks would have been tackled at this initial stage.
Already, Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State, Adamawa State University, Mubi, Adamawa State, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Zamfara State are among the early birds at the exercise.
Dates and time of appearance for all institutions have been communicated to them and posted on the official website of TETFund on www.tetfund.gov.ng.
