Federal Tertiary Institutions across the country have now been urged to go ahead and access their outstanding Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and begin developing necessary facilities in their institutions.

The minister, who made the call while speaking at the South East Zonal Town Hall meeting on the use of TETFUND Allocations at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus on Tuesday, said that tertiary institutions should improve the capacity of their physical planning unit staff to expedite actions on project execution.

According to a statement released by his Sepecial Assistant on Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, the minister “said that there is also the need for TETFUND management and board to look into the challenges that have been outlined by institutions on the processes for accessing allocations to enhance maximum success.

“Wike said that despite the challenges noticed in accessing TETfund allocations, tremendous progress in terms of basic infrastructural development has been witnessed in institutions of higher learning.”

The statement quoted the minister as saying: “It is easy to spread falsehood, but these town hall meetings have exposed the truth about the investments by the Jonathan administration in TETFUND and Nigerians are seeing the wonderful works being done in the schools.

“No other administration has invested in tertiary education like the Jonathan administration. We have witnessed increased normal TETFUND allocations and the Special intervention in universities after Needs Assessment report”.

The statement added that “Eleven tertiary institutions in the South East Zone gave account of their stewardship in the utilization of TETFUND allocations.

Source: Daily Trust Newspaper