The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) says it has disbursed N550 million to the Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, for the purpose of addressing insecurity.
The Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono, made this known in Abuja on Monday when the Kaduna State Government delegation, led by the state’s Governor, Sen. Uba Sani, paid him a courtesy visit.
Echono said the disbursement was beyond the normal allocations, as the fund also disbursed N500 million to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for the completion of a project, in addition to making it a centre of excellence.
He added that the same amount was also given to Kaduna State University to complete some projects in its Kafanchan Campus to complete some critical projects.
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He assured the state government that one of the public tertiary institutions in the state would benefit from the TETFund special high impact intervention in 2024.
“This year already, we made some special allocation beyond the normal allocations that all institutions get.
”ABU Zaria for example, again, not only was it recognised as a centre of excellence, where we want to have a special centre in the area of education, but we also gave them some additional fund about 500 million to complete one project.
“The same amount was also given to Kaduna State University to complete some projects in your Kafanchan campus.
”The Kaduna State College of Education you mentioned, that had issue of security, I can confirm to you that in matter of weeks ago or some days ago, we released N550 million to them to address the issue of security.
“There is a sequence that we designed for the special high impact projects on zonal basis and I know the commissioners has been following,” he said .
He described Kaduna as one of the states that had enjoyed the most support from the fund, adding that Kaduna hosts the North West headquarters of TETFund.
According to him, the Kaduna State Government allocated a very prime location for the fund’s headquarters with a building on it and the contract for the construction projects will be awarded in the next one month.
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Earlier, the Kaduna State Governor, Sani, requested for more interventions and supports from TETFund in some of the key institutions in the state.
Sani said that he was also at fund’s headquarters to make more effort to ensure that interventions to institutions within the state are released soon.
He appreciated the effort made by TETFund in ensuring that institutions are provided with essential infrastructure in institutions across the country, and in Kaduna, stating that he has been following such efforts even as a senator.
“As someone who has been in the National Assembly until a few months ago, as a senator, I followed all the progress made by the TETFund in trying to support the development of education in particular, across the country.
“Of course, Kaduna State has done a lot in supporting the TETFund. Only recently, we have been able to give the TETFund one of the most important pieces of land in Kaduna to build their zonal office.
“And I’m happy to say that we will support them to ensure that you have all the necessary cooperation from our building departments to ensure that they have been able to progress without any hindrance,” he said.
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While outlining the areas of need for the state’s institutions, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Muhammad Bello, said all the state-owned institutions are in need of interventions.
Bello said in other to provide more access to students who may want to go in for NCE programme, the state had established a campus of the state’s college of education and that it required intervention to be able to fast track the development of the campus.