FG approves over N6bn intervention funds for 271 tertiary institutions

The Federal Government has approved the disbursement of more than ₦6 billion in intervention funds to 271 tertiary institutions in 2026. The approval is through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the funds will be disbursed across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education nationwide.

Each university would receive a total of ₦2,525,932,228.02, while polytechnics would receive ₦1,871,059,920.53 each, and colleges of education would get ₦2,056,527,973.04 each, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sunny Echono, said while reading out the figures at the annual disbursement meeting in Abuja, Tuesday.

A breakdown of the disbursement cycle includes: Total direct disbursement – 90.75 per cent, consisting of annual direct disbursement of 50 percent and special direct disbursement of 40.75 per cent, while designated projects amount to 9.07 percent and stabilisation funds of 0.18 per cent.

He, however, lamented the undue delay by beneficiary institutions in processing projects for approval in principle and obtaining due process for implementation.

Echono advised such institutional heads to execute their procurement planning processes early enough to avoid these delays.

“Also worrisome is the slow and reluctant utilisation of the TERAS platform with all its associated services by some beneficiary institutions. The Fund will be paying closer attention to this in the year 2026.

“The Fund also expects better documentation and knowledge of its guidelines for its training and content intervention lines. This should mitigate the challenges and problems experienced by scholars across beneficiary institutions,” he cautioned.

He also noted that the Fund would sustain intervention in addressing security infrastructure and training, completing long-abandoned projects, and strengthening disaster recovery measures.

According to him, research and innovation remain a priority, with support for the National Research Fund, institutional R&D partnerships, the Research-Meets-Industry initiative, and commercialisation of research outcomes, amongst others.