By Demola Akinyemi

ILORIN — THE management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, has said it released N22.3 billion in 10 years to benefiting institutions.

Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, of the organisation, Dr. Musa Babayo, who explained that the amount was an intervention fund to procure technical and laboratory equipment, lamented that the huge amount had no complementary effect on the organisation.

Speaking at the capacity building programme for laboratory technologists in tertiary institutions in the North-Central/South-West in Ilorin,  Babayo lamented that some of the equipment were either never been installed, under-utilised or not being properly maintained by the respective benefiting institutions due to lack of training of laboratory technologists.

According to him, “specifically, between 2004 and 2007, N7 billion was allocated to technical and vocational education, while N15.3 billion was released in 2011 for technical/vocational equipment through the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to tertiary institutions.”

Represented by Alhaji Idris Saidu,  Babayo noted that it was imperative to match capacity building programme to funds allocated for interventions in all tertiary institutions to ensure optimal benefit for the educational sector and the nation.

At the workshop, entitled, “Enhancing the Capacity and Productivity of Technician/Technologists,” executive secretary of the fund, Professor Suleiman Bogoro, explained that the fund was committed to delivery of quality and forward-looking intervention for the educational development of the nation.