The Federal Government has approved N292.66 billion for the development of infrastructure in public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across the country.
The money is expected to be spread to Institutions of higher learning selected from each of the six geo-political zones of the country.
The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, said in a statement on Tuesday that in the 2021 disbursement plans, N906 million would go to at least one University in a geopolitical zone while N628 million will be given to one polytechnic and one college of education, also in each geopolitical zone.
At a meeting with stakeholders in Abuja earlier, Bogoro said that the federal government had bestowed on the agency the responsibility of completing the national library project in Abuja.
Emphasising the importance of research to national development, Bogoro said the federal government established the National Research Foundation and continuously approvesd funds to see that it improved.
He explained that funds provided for the National Research Foundation had increased from N3 billion to N8.5 billion in recent times.
The TETfund boss, however, challenged academics in the country to turn around the fortunes of the country through cutting-edge research using the funds provided
“Let us apply our innovative research outcome to solve the security problem, let us bring back value addition to the solid minerals that we are blessed with, it is one gold we have not explored to any significant level,” he said.
He said that the federal government had also made funds available for TETFund to support research activities at the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), to address the nation’s security challenges. ##
