TETfund’s South-south Initiatives


“Education at the tertiary level is the most important sector that defines the life, the value, the political culture and the economic power of a nation – President Muhammadu Buhari.
The rate at which the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) is traversing Nigeria has left no one in doubt about its intent to massively put in place infrastructural masterpiece in tertiary institutions of learning in the country. What about the construction of building of classroom blocks laced with the state-of-art facilities and equipment which serve as teaching aids for students in these institutions. TETfund has made its presence known in the South-south zone just as it has done in the North-central, South-west, South-east and the North-west. As long as education remains the best legacy for future generation as alluded by President Buhari and as part of its mandate to administer and disburse resources to federal and state tertiary educational institutions, TETfund, taking from the words of Brian Tracy, a Canadian-American self-development author who says, “Setting goals, working towards them day by day, and ultimately achieving them is the key to happiness in life”, is leaving no stone unturned to make its impact felt in the South-south higher institutions.


At the Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa state, TETfund has furnished classrooms, library seminar hall and 350 capacity hall, 700 well-padded leather cover seats and wooden and steel collapsible auditorium seats attached with a writing and support platform through its annual merged intervention fund. At the Federal Polytechnic Ekowe, also in Bayelsa, there was fabrication of vertical palm kernel breaker, horizontal palm kernel cracking machine and fabrication of gas powered palm oil processing mill. Also at the Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education (COE) Sagbama, Okpoama,   there was fabrication of two incinerators for waste management and fabrication of solar powered refrigerator achieved through the annual merged 2016/2017/2018/2019 Intervention. 
TETfund at the Delta State Polytechnic Ozoro designed and fabricated poultry feed making machine, designed and fabricated drones for campus security and surveillances and these were achieved through the 2016/2019 Intervention. Also there was construction and furnishing of 2-storey library complex building, six lecture rooms, four resources rooms, 42 offices, two seminar conference rooms and 51 rest rooms, construction and furnishing of three examination hall buildings and 22 office board rooms and the supply, installation of furnishing  for offices  in school of environmental  science were achieved through the 2019 special intervention fund.  At the Delta State Polytechnic Ogwashi –Uku, there was construction of 1000 ICT Laboratory and commissioning of ICT equipment for ICT center comprising 430 HP, Dell, Lenovo and GMT Desktop. There was also procurement, installation, testing and commissioning of agricultural and bio environment engineering equipment; procurement  and commissioning of one new (2017) 30-seater diesel engine power steering and supply of a brand new 2017 model Toyota Coaster (30-seater specification) all these through the 2014 special Intervention.


The 2017/2019 annual intervention is what it takes the Federal College of Education (Technical Asaba) to have new academic staff offices building, construction of academic staff offices building, the director of students’ affairs unit, the director SIWES, conference and seminar unit, Research and publication unit. There was also the construction of Home Economics complex (Block A) comprising offices, seminar rooms and the construction of information and communication technology (ICT) Center comprising ICT Halls 1 & 2 and four Cyber Assistant Room.


A the College of Education Warri, TETfund procured and installed various ICT equipment and materials for the computer laboratory; deployed, installed and commissioned local network and wireless network connection and also the procurement of Toyota Hilux  FWD double cabin 2.7 engine vehicle through the 2019 Special Intervention.


The University of Benin got Materials and Metallurgy Building, Science Building, Science and Biodiversity Laboratory and museum.  The aforementioned which are parts of the 2017/2019 annual intervention fund also covered the construction and furnishing of one-storey student hostel building comprising 28 bedrooms, two common room; construction and furnishing of one-storey academic office building comprising  22 offices and construction of three-storey building for department of food science and human nutrition. At the Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, through the 2017/2018/2019 annual merged intervention, the university got students conference centre comprising two floors (one-storey), a conference room hall with stair cases; construction and furnishing of lecture theatre including two floors (one-storey); two seminar rooms; supply and installation of furniture for students conference center comprising 1,806 conference hall chair with stainless steel. Others construction include the Radio/Television station for Department of Mass Communication and Physical Science buildings and Mega Library Complex at Delta State University, Abraka as well as workshops and laboratory for Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engineering Departments at Edo State Polytechnic. 
At Auchi Polytechnic, there was construction and furnishing of two blocks of 3 storey, nine classrooms with landscaping, construction of a block of two floors, construction of a twin 240-seat capacity theater and procurement of equipment for some academic departments like Mechanical Engineering Technology, Chemical Technology Engineering and Polymer Engineering, all these are courtesy  of2017/2018/2019 Annual intervention which also the procurement, installation, testing and  training equipment for surveying  Geo Informatics Department. The 2017/2018/2019 Annual Intervention provided Edo State Polytechnic Usen with one new storey building, 250 Capacity Twin Lecture Theater, construction of complete student library comprising 24 offices, 13Reading Halls and the supply and installation of furniture comprising 30 L-shape executive tables. The College of Education Igueben was also not left out as TETfund procured a Toyota Coaster 30-seater Bus engine with 5 speed transmission through the 2019 Zonal Intervention. Like Igueben, the College Of Education Ekiadolor through the 2019 Zonal intervention was given a Toyota Coaster 2017 brand 30-seater specification and furniture comprising of 153 full upholstery.


At the University of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, TETfund constructed and furnished the Department of Linguistics’ Administrative Building and Communication Studies, the construction and furnishing of Administrative Building for Dentistry Department  , one laboratory, 41 offices (with 28 ensuite) one 8-seater capacity meeting room and a conference hall. There was also the construction and furnishing of academic building for Crop and Soil Science Laboratory, four laboratories of various capacities and 10 offices, construction and furnishing of Academic Building for Department of Animal Science; supply, installation, configuration and commissioning of 110 all in one computer desktop 21 windows 104gb ram 500HDD CORE 17 all achievable through the 2017/2019 Annual Intervention.
River State University as part of its 2019 special intervention was gifted a well-furnished Faculty of Education Building, 12 lecture halls, data room and others. There was also the construction and furnishing of Social Sciences Building, construction and furnishing of Faculty of Arts and Humanities Building, a multipurpose hall, lecture halls and seminar halls. Also at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Rivers State, TETfund constructed a 3-storey classrooms and office building for Faculty of  Business Studies comprising four classrooms, three study rooms, Faculty Library, Conference Hall, Laboratories and other offices . There was also the procurement and installation and furnishing for Department Of Management and Marketing with eight 1.5m executive table purchased.  Science laboratory equipment for various departments including   Physics Laboratory got Signal generator and other equipment procured, installed, tested and commissioned as part of 2017/2019 intervention fund.


At FCE (Technical) Omoku as part of its 2019 zonal intervention, the college got the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of science laboratory equipment comprising 35 table top computers with hard disk and also the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of agricultural equipment: a Tractor model QLN 254 25HP with production capacity of 6000 units. 
At University of Port Harcourt, Professor Bogoro has commissioned projects which include the ultra-modern multipurpose building with lecture theatre and offices for staff and students of the university. The seven in one complex has facilities that include a 1,000- capacity auditorium, 600-capacity lecture theatre, 24 fully furnished academic staff offices, classrooms block of eight classes, museum building and a basic medical science building. 
It is Niccolò Machiavelli who says in his popular book, ‘The Prince’, “The first opinion that is often form of a great leader’s intelligence is the quality of men and women around him.”  Thus, it will not be out of place to say bravo and kudos to the great intelligentsia, men and women around the visionary and dynamic Prof Bogoro who is  taking TETfund to  greater heights in line with the change mantra of the Buhari government.
Ibrahim writes via [email protected]

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