Soludo interested in collaborating with TETFund to develop initiatives in tertiary institutions.

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has requested strategic collaboration with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in the delivery of intervention projects in the state’s tertiary institutions.

Soludo, who made the appeal during a courtesy visit to TETFund Executive Secretary Sonny Echono yesterday in Abuja, said such participation would ensure that TETFund’s projects in the state had a major impact.

“We have a big dream, a big goal to engage with you and other important stakeholders; the Federal Government is a key player in this field,” Soludo continued. We are all aware that education is on the concurrent list in the 1999 Constitution, which governs how the federal and state governments work together. The only way we can make it work for ourselves is to collaborate, coordinate, and cooperate, and, coincidentally, the federation’s resource envelope here in Abuja is disproportionate.

“I would like for us to work in many of the sectors in which we are involved, and in a few years, we will be able to say that we accomplished something tangible through the TETFund cooperation.”

Soludo also lauded the TETFund for its intervention projects across the country, noting that the three state-owned tertiary institutions, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, University of Anambra Polytechnic, Mgbakwu, and College of Education, Nsugbe, are eager to welcome more intervention projects from the Fund.

The governor, on the other hand, expressed alarm over the country’s growing number of higher institutions, claiming that the government may be unable to properly fund them in the future.

“There are still questions, still issues; we are not asking those questions right now,” he said, adding that “at some point, we will ask how the government will be able to fund or adequately fund the number of institutions, or the mechanism of delivery, particularly with the brick and mortar system that we have.”

“However, in the interim, TETFund has been filling the infrastructure vacuum in our tertiary institutions.”

Echono answered that the Fund has continued to strive for excellence in infrastructure and academic content development.