By Olayinka Latona

BENIN—The Vice Chancellor of Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, Edo State, Prof. Benard Aigbokhan, has pleaded with the Federal Government to extend the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, to private universities in the country.

Buhari

The Vice-Chancellor, in Lagos during a pre-convocation press briefing, on the maiden convocation of the institution scheduled for August 4, 2015, noted that large part of the source of TETFUND were tax from the private sector and as such, private institutions should be allowed to benefit from the fund.

Aigbokhan said the call became imperative because both public and private universities have the same goals of training and research but are all underfunded.

He added that funding has become a major challenge facing tertiary institutions, especially private schools, as he called on the Federal Government to modify TETFUND Act for it to accommodate private institutions.

The Vice Chancellor said all the students were fully exposed to the challenges of life because of entrepreneurial and Information Communication Technology, ICT, skills they acquired in the course of their training.

He added that the university added the teaching of entrepreneurship education to encourage self-employment and to impact positively on the nation’s technological development.

“One of the goals of the school is to graduate students who have certificates in ICT and entrepreneurship, they can be self employed when they are out of the school making them employer of labour rather than job seekers. These students can compete favourably with their fellows in other higher institutions of learning.”