The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has blamed slow pace of\u00a0work in its various intervention projects in public\u00a0tertiary institutions across the country to\u00a0fluctuations in prices of important building materials, COVID-19 lockdown and disruption to other economic activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to TETFund, it has secured the commitment of the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu to make special provision in its future allocation to tackle the projects experiencing delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TETFund\u2019s Executive Secretary, Arc. Sonny Echono, on Tuesday 31 May, while hosting the\u00a0Chairman of the Governing Council and Pro-Chancellor of the Benue State University, Sebastine Hon, SAN, and other top management staff\u00a0of the institution on a courtesy visit to him, said his organization had undertaken\u00a0a comprehensive review\u00a0of all outstanding projects with a view to working on those that are close to completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arc. Echono said this in response to the request by the varsity pro-chancellor for\u00a0 intervention in the completion of ongoing projects in the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Echono’s words: \u201cWe have projects that commenced but because of fluctuations in prices of important building materials,\u00a0 because of the delay associated with the Covid lockdown and other disruption to other economic activities we now have both time and cost overhead and the earlier we address this the better for our country as we will not\u00a0 have abandoned projects litering round our campuses.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He also added: \u201cI have earlier given the directive that as a matter of policy, we have undertaken a comprehensive review\u00a0 of all of our outstanding projects with a view to bringing those that are close to completion, speedy completion through the various strategies we have identified\u2026\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am also pleased to inform you that we have secured the concurrence of the Honourable Minister of Education that from next year, we will have a special provision in our allocations for the completion of all ongoing projects\u2026..\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Arc. Echono said the special provision which was until now captured in the the Fund\u2019s allocation to beneficiary institutions will address the issue of delay in projects\u2019 completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Executive Secretary, who said TETFund has a very high rate of completion of projects, promised that the Fund would also look into the request for special intervention on the BSU library that was affected by storm through its Stability Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking earlier, the Chairman of Governing Board of the Benue State University, acknowledged TETFund for committing about N7 billion to its various intervention projects in Benue State University(BSU) Makurdi, from 1999 to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While congratulating Echono on his appointment as TETFund boss,\u00a0 Hon also commended President Muhammadu Buhari over his choice, even as he described the Executive Secretary as \u201cone of our illustrious alumni, having graduated with a degree in MBA in\u00a0 Management from our University.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While expressing delight over the various TETFund projects that now dotted the University\u2019s campus, the Pro-Chancellor appealed for the speedy completion of other ongoing projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said : \u201cWe are here to also acknowledge and express the profound appreciation of the Visitor, the Council, Management, Staff and Students for the support both in terms of content-base Interventions and Infrastructure BSU has benefitted from TETFund from 1999 till now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur campus is dominated with TETFund-sponsored legacy structures including the central library, laboratories, lecture theatres, faculty buildings, student social centre, and entrepreneurship development centre, not excluding research (IBR, NRF, ARJ, AMB), academic training and conferences (foreign and local), post-doctoral, Bench work and developments in ICT.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn all, the University has received about Seven Billion<\/em> Naira (N7,000,000,000.00) in intervention from TETFund between 1999 and now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201d For want of time, we would have provided the statistics to enable the ES to understand our excitement and appreciation to TETFund in this regard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201d The Executive Secretary Sir, we have some TETFund-supported projects on-going now. Whereas some of the contractors have shown commitment, some have been poor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201d It is important to mention that the Covid-19 lockdown affected the speed and cost as it were. The projects include, Construction and furnishing of Faculty of Education building -85%; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Construction and furnishing of Research Development and Innovation Centre \u2013 90%; Construction and furnishing of Academic Office building-80%;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Construction and furnishing of block of offices for College of Health Sciences \u2013 90%; Construction and furnishing of Faculty of Science building \u2013 45%.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking further, the Pro-Chancellor called for a waiver to access the 2021\/2022 TETFund\u2019s allocations to enable the University address its challenges as well as special intervention on the institution\u2019s library that was recently touched by heavy storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hon said: \u201d We have a very small campus, and we desire to expand in terms of content-base and infrastructure. Our University has commenced appreciable steps with NUC to commence the following programmes: Architecture, Pharmacy, Engineering, and Building Engineering.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTherefore, and further to the level of completion of the above listed projects, we hereby appeal to you to grant us a waiver to allow the University to access the 2021 and 2022 annual allocations to<\/em> enable us to proceed with the projects tied to those allocations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe wish to also report that our central library suffered severe damage caused by a recent storm. This has left the building and property therein exposed to the elements. We desire to submit a request for disaster intervention.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On his part, the TETFund boss, who commended BSU for its massive contribution towards the production of relevant manpower in the country, said the university was one of the first to be established in the entire northern part of Nigeria by state government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has blamed slow pace of\u00a0work in its various intervention projects in public\u00a0tertiary institutions across<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n