Nigeria’s Federal Government announced the disbursement of N912 million to each university from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for 2014.

The Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, announced this at the two-day TETFund Annual Strategic Planning Workshop in Abuja.

Shekarau said that each polytechnic would receive N661 million, while each college of education would get the sum of N581 million.

According to Shekarau, it is a remarkable increase compared with the previous disbursements.

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“TETFUND disburses fund realised from two per cent education tax collections to federal and state universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

“Over the years, the quantum of funds allocated to institutions has increased considerably.

“This year, the amount for direct allocation to the beneficiaries has increased by 41 per cent for universities, 49 per cent for polytechnics and 48 per cent for colleges of education compared to 2013.

“This year, each university is receiving the sum of N912 million in normal intervention, each polytechnic is receiving the sum of N661 million while each college of education is receiving the sum of N581 million.’’

The minister said that the interventions were supplements to normal annual budgetary provisions by the federal and state governments.

He warned that the intervention fund must be properly prioritised and applied to projects that directly add value to teaching and learning; and to post-graduate training for academic staff as well as to research and scholarly publications.

Earlier, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, said that the purpose of the workshop was to review previous years’ interventions in various institutions.

Bogoro said the workshop would discuss the guidelines for the 2014 Intervention Allocation Programmes.

He said the workshop would also deliberate on the focus and the guidelines for the implementation of the 2014 Intervention Programmes.