Oyebanji lauds TETFUND for infrastructural projects in Ekiti institutions

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, has hailed the Tertiary Education Trust Fund for its interventions in providing succour to Ekiti State-owned tertiary institutions in the area of infrastructure.

The governor, represented by the Head of Service, Dr Folakemi Olomojobi, spoke in Ado Ekiti, on Monday, during the oversight visit of the House of Representatives Committee on TETFUND and other services to the state.

Oyebanji said that TETFUND’s intervention was evident in many infrastructural projects in the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti; Bamidele Olumilua University of Science and Technology, Ikere Ekiti and Ekiti State Polytechnic, Isan Ekiti.

He said, “TETFUND has recorded positive impacts which have brought succour to tertiary education not only in terms of infrastructural development but also in the area of human capital development as well as funding of institution-based research”.

Oyebanji, who said that education was the priority of Ekiti State, said, “All bottlenecks militating against the utilization of funds from TETFUND across the institutions will be removed”.

The governor said that the state government would explore every available resource and avenue to utilize the opportunity that TETFUND had to offer to emplace 21st-century academic institutions in the state.

He said that it was on the strength of infrastructural development as entrenched in the six pillars of his administration that the government considered the need for further increase in the monthly subvention to the institutions.

The House Committee Chairman, Princess Miriam Onuona, said the committee was in the state to monitor and to ensure judicious and proper utilization of funds allocated for various development projects in tertiary institutions.

Onuona, called on the institutions to avail themselves of the opportunity of the visit to address any area of impediment or bottleneck to assessing the funds allocated to them to build infrastructure and learning in the institutions, adding that such funds if not assessed on time could lose value due to inflationary trend.

The lawmaker said that the three Ekiti State institutions, during the period under review, year 2021 to part of year 2024, still had some unassessed funds as she advised them to consult the team of consultants that the House Committee had put together to immediately diagnose impediments that made it difficult to assess the funds.

Onuona said that the committee was collaborating with the executive to ease whatever challenges including amendment of any law, if need be, that could serve as an impediment to assessing the funds allocated for the institutions.