Senate Warns Falling TETFund Revenue Could Slow Tertiary Infrastructure Projects

Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund has warned that declining revenue could slow the development of infrastructure across the country’s tertiary institutions.

Committee chairman Senator Mohammed Dandutshe raised the concern during an oversight visit to Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. The committee inspected TETFund-funded projects and held discussions with the institution’s management, staff, and students. Dandutshe said consultations with stakeholders suggested that the amount available for distribution this year could be significantly lower than the previous year’s allocation.

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The development could affect the pace of infrastructure development in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, particularly as the government continues to establish and expand tertiary institutions across the country.

“The development could affect the pace of infrastructure development in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, particularly as the government continues to establish and expand tertiary institutions across the country,” he said. He said Nigeria needed to give education funding greater priority to achieve sustainable national development.

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The inspection was also designed to enable members of the committee to engage directly with tertiary institutions and understand the challenges affecting the delivery of quality education.

Dandutshe said the visit also formed part of the committee’s constitutional duty to monitor project implementation and promote transparency and accountability in the use of public funds. The committee was assessing what YABATECH had achieved through TETFund interventions for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 cycles, while identifying problems that might require legislative action.

YABATECH Rector Dr Ibraheem Abdul said the college faced severe infrastructure pressure because of its large population and limited land. The institution has about 35,400 students and more than 2,000 staff members on a relatively small site, making horizontal expansion difficult. It has therefore turned to multi-storey buildings. Abdul said several facilities had become obsolete, including some built during the colonial era, and that the college had begun a redevelopment programme involving the demolition of old structures and construction of modern facilities. “YABATECH had also adopted the policy of merging TETFund interventions across different years to execute projects of substantial value and quality capable of addressing its peculiar infrastructural needs,” he said.

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YABATECH had also adopted the policy of merging TETFund interventions across different years to execute projects of substantial value and quality capable of addressing its peculiar infrastructural needs.