The administration of President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) has given its approval for N320,345,040,835 to be allocated as intervention funds for public tertiary education institutions in Nigeria in 2023.
Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, announced this during a strategic planning workshop in Abuja with the heads of beneficiary institutions. The purpose of the meeting was to gather feedback and assess the performance of TETFund’s intervention programs to improve the delivery of the agency’s mission.
Echono stated that each university would receive N1,154,732,133.00; polytechnics would get N699,344,867.00, and each College of Education would receive N800,862,602 during the 2023 intervention cycle.
In his statement, he said: “I am pleased to inform you that Mr. President has approved the 2023 disbursement guidelines in the total sum of N320,345,040, 835. Based on this, each university shall get, for the Year 2023 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,154,732,133.00.
“This comprises N954,732,123.00 as annual direct disbursement and N200 million as zonal intervention. Similarly, each Polytechnic shall get N699,344,867.00 comprising of N569,344,807.00 as annual direct disbursement and N130million as zonal intervention, while each College of education shall get N800,862,602 comprising of N670,862,602.00 as annual direct disbursement and N130million as zonal intervention.
“It is pertinent to note that this represents the highest disbursement to each beneficiary institution, since the inception of the Fund.”
Echono stated that the Nigerian tertiary education sector has experienced a remarkable improvement during President Buhari’s administration. Specifically, between 2015 and the present time, a total of N1.702 trillion has been disbursed as education tax collection to public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. This amount is significantly higher than the N1.249 trillion that was disbursed during the previous 21 years of the Fund’s existence, from 1993 to 2014.
