The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), has warned that Beneficiary Institutions (BI) delaying the completion of approved projects would not get approval to commence new projects in the 2027 allocation cycle.
Director, Public Affairs of TETFUND,
Abdulmumin Oniyangi disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
For the affected institutions, the Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman, Rt. Hon. Aminu Masari, noted the reasons given for the unacceptable development which ranges from volatility in market prices of key building materials like cement, reinforcement bars, sanitary/electrical fittings amongst other.
This, he said was why a new intervention line dedicated to completing the affected projects was introduced in 2023. As a result of the initiative a recent review confirmed that it yielded the desired result as many of the affected projects were completed.
The BOT Chairman however, frowned at the continued occurrence of non-adherence to stipulated timeline in completing TETFund sponsored projects as noticed recently, stating that, lack of continuity in project implementations by heads of beneficiary institutions who prefer to start new projects, delays in processing of payments to contractors handling the projects was largely responsible for the avoidable development.
The Board also warned that TETFund sponsored projects will not be allowed to be negatively impacted by internal bureaucracy and politics within beneficiary institutions.
Therefore, as a lasting solution to the re-occurring problems of distressed projects, the BoT approved the following measures for immediate implementation:
All Beneficiary Institutions (BI) are to compile a comprehensive list of all projects that have exceeded their planned completion period by more than 6 months, indicating causes of delay and proffering remedies;
The projects are to be ranked in order of relevance and priority, with detailed costing for their completion;
BI’s should put in place a robust and effective supervision team with the active participation of the respective Physical Planning and Maintenance Departments to ensure effective project delivery i.e. on time, at prescribed cost, and to specified quality standard.
“Institutions with delayed projects will be required to prioritize the completion of these projects under their Annual, Zonal and High Impact Intervention lines. Accordingly, no new projects will be admitted from the identified beneficiary institutions for the 2027 Intervention cycle.
“Monitoring teams comprising members of the BoT and technical staff of the Fund shall carry out on-the-spot assessment of the affected projects and examine proposals from affected Beneficiary Institutions on programs for their completion.
“These shall be conducted within the months of August and September 2026 ahead of the October 2026 statutory meeting of the BoT for the consideration of projects to be admitted into the 2027 disbursement guidelines”, the statement concluded.
