Plateau’s Gov. Simon Lalong on Thursday in Abuja called for increased intervention by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) in the state’s tertiary institutions.
Lalong made the call when he visited to congratulate the new Executive Secretary of TETfund, Mr. Sonny Echono, at the organization’s headquarters.
He thanked the organization for facilitating the improvement of education in Plateau, the northern region, and Nigeria as a whole.
He urged it to continue the good work, especially to ensure the steady development of newly-established tertiary institutions.
The governor said Plateau would continue to engage the Fund to address critical challenges of educational institutions in the state.
He expressed confidence that Echono would continue with the good works of his predecessor, Prof. Elias Bogoro, who executed many infrastructural development projects in tertiary institutions across the country.
Lalong assured Echono that he would cooperate with him in the discharge of his duties.
He added that as chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, he would ensure that governors in the northern part of the country also cooperated with Echono.
He said he would work with his colleagues to ensure that the Fund achieved its mandates, especially in the northern parts which are lagging educationally.
He called for an increase in the Fund’s budgetary provision to enable it to execute more projects.
“I want an increase in budgetary provisions for TETFund as against recent calls for its scrapping,’’ Lalong said.
Responding, Echono said he would continue to do his best to justify the confidence and trust reposed in him.
He said in addition to the provision of infrastructure, the Fund would invest in developing manpower in tertiary institutions to facilitate the inculcation of knowledge and good character in students.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved an upward review of Educational Tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to take effect from 2023.
The increased tax would facilitate the implementation of more developmental projects in the education sector, he said.
He added that the president also approved welfare packages for teachers, but it required sacrifices to be made by state governments.
Echono said there was a need for additional universities in the country to empower youths to become creators of jobs and to become entrepreneurs.