The Federal Government has announced that its Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) will increase research grants to tertiary institutions to N8.5 billion from N7.5 billion in 2020.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu at the first National Conference on Research, Training and Development in Zaria, themed: “Research, Training and Development in Nigeria’s educational system in the 21st century: challenges and way forward,” organised by the Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria.
The Minister revealed that in 2019, the TETFund research grant was N5 billion, citing that the Federal Government had decided to raise its budgetary allocation to the education sector by 50 per cent in next year’s budget, with a view to addressing the funding shortfall for the sector.
The minister stressed the global importance of research in any academic community, saying that the number of academic publications were not enough, as what mattered most was the amount of research grants one attracted to his or her university as a professor or senior academic officer.
“I am really happy that things are gradually changing in ABU. As one of the first generation universities in Nigeria, ABU should not take the rear seat in the area of research and other academic activities,” Adamu said.
What you should know
Recall Nairametrics reported last month that TETFund announced it disbursed the sum of N300 billion in 2021 to 226 tertiary institutions for infrastructure development and training.
Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, TETFund, said that TETFund currently has 10,000 projects across the various tertiary institutions in the country to show for its efforts.
“Our performance, impact, is visible in every institution. At the University of Lagos alone, we have completed and ongoing 75 projects while at Lagos State University we have 68 projects.
“There is no tertiary institution that I have visited that does not have at least 50 completed and ongoing projects fully funded by TETFund,” Ibrahim-Imam.
