Charting New Path for TETFund Beyond Infrastructure Development  

The Board of Trustees, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, recently held its 2025 Town-Hall meeting with stakeholders, academics policymakers and civil society in Lagos, where leaders and experts argued that the agency must evolve into a powerhouse of innovation capable of boosting local production, creating jobs, and fixing Nigeria’s intellectual crisis. Funmi Ogundare reports

From building lecture halls to laboratories, libraries to innovation hubs, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has long been a quiet powerhouse behind deepening Nigeria’s tertiary education standards, strengthening institutional capacity and positioning Nigeria’s higher education system to compete effectively on the global stage. However, the need to evolve into a powerhouse of innovation capable of boosting local production and creating jobs,  recently prompted its 2025 Board of Trustees (BoT) Town Hall Meeting in Lagos, which provided a rare and valuable opportunity for constructive dialogue, feedback and collaboration among stakeholders.

The Executive Secretary, Sunday Echono, stated that TETFund not only supports tertiary institutions but actively drives national innovation, boosts local production, and creates jobs.

He said that the fund’s potential is far greater than bricks and mortar. “Stronger national support will allow TETFund to fully deliver on its mandate of driving innovation, strengthening local capacity, and reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported goods,” he stated.

At the heart of its vision is investment in research and development. According to Echono, such investment translates into new ideas, products, services and ultimately, employment opportunities across key sectors. He emphasised on agriculture as a critical area of focus, promising a shift from crude, manual farming practices to modern, locally developed equipment and techniques.

“With improved technology, farmers would identify high-yield crops, optimise fertiliser use, adopt advanced irrigation, and mechanise operations, raising productivity, boosting income, and making farming an attractive, profitable vocation.

Beyond farming, the executive secretary spoke of transforming Nigeria’s mineral wealth. By curbing illegal mining and channelling resources into structured industries led by local expertise, TETFund aims to empower professionals and reduce the country’s dependence on imports.

“Sustainable national development rests on the capacity of our people. Only deliberate investment in education can produce the skilled manpower required to harness Nigeria’s natural endowments,” he stressed.

The BoT Chairman, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, harped on the strategic shift from infrastructure-heavy spending to a balanced approach prioritising human capital development, research commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and digital governance, all aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He revealed that TETFund’s 2025 budget earmarks ₦70 billion for mini-grid energy solutions across campuses to cut operational costs and improve research and learning environments.

Masari cited the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR), which has produced over 200 prototypes with commercialisation potential; and the Research for Impact (R4i) programme, which has trained 939 academics in transforming ideas into market-ready products.

Innovation and entrepreneurship hubs are also scaling up, equipped with robotics labs, 3D printing, renewable energy, biotechnology, and AI centres, transforming campuses into incubators of technology, creativity and enterprise.

Some of the experts who spoke at the event, emphasised the urgency of TETFund’s evolution. Prof. Anthony Kila, Director General, Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS), warned that Nigeria faces an intellectual emergency, contributing less than 0.3 per cent of global research output despite a population of over 200 million.

While acknowledging TETFund’s achievements in infrastructure, lecturer training, and academic publishing, he stressed that the fund must now become a strategic driver of knowledge, innovation, and competitiveness.

He described the sector as one that has endured heat, cracks and shocks, with chronic underfunding, poor infrastructure, weak research culture and a widening gap between academic training and industry needs.

Kila expressed concern that many institutions resemble secondary schools undergoing a hasty makeover and no longer produce problem-solvers, innovators or globally competitive professionals.

While commending TETFund for lecture halls, laboratories, libraries, staff training and research grants across campuses, he insisted that relevance must now be measured by impact, not monuments.

He proposed five priority expansions for the gund: aggressive research commercialisation, national research missions in food security, renewable energy, health, digital economy and security, structured private sector co-investment, outcome-based accountability for beneficiaries, as well as reassessment of TETFund’s exclusion of private universities.

“Contrary to what many people think, Nigeria’s future will not depend on oil or politics but on the quality of our thinking. If we believe education drives national progress, then TETFund must evolve beyond a structure builder to a generator of ideas and a cultivator of minds.”

Similarly, Dr. Reuben Abati, columnist and media personality, said that  TETFund is indispensable to Nigeria’s tertiary education, adding that without its interventions, universities, polytechnics and colleges of education would face systemic collapse, dilapidated lecture halls, malfunctioning laboratories, weak ICT infrastructure, and a sharp drop in research output.

Yet, he stated that TETFund’s role extends far beyond funding buildings. “It is a generator of public value, enhancing research, human capital, and societal development.”

Abati called for proactive communication to bridge perception gaps, saying that bureaucratic delays, financial constraints, political interference, and institutional weaknesses often distort public understanding of the fund’s achievements.

Abati proposed a forward-looking roadmap for TETFund, urging stronger transparency via digital dashboards, improved research management with industry-academia collaboration, capacity building for institutions, and strategic investment in frontier technologies such as AI, robotics and biotechnology.

“Even exemplary performance can be overshadowed if communication is inadequate,” he noted, stressing the need for proactive engagement with media, civil society and stakeholders to showcase success stories and enhance public trust.

He said that future-proofing TETFund is a collective responsibility: “Its strength, transparency, efficiency, and forward-looking approach are crucial if our universities are to compete globally, produce skilled professionals, and generate research that addresses national challenges.”