Governor Dikko Radda of Katsina state has sought support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to tackle the challenges of insecurity affecting tertiary institutions in the state.
Radda stated this when he led the Katsina state delegation on a working visit to TETFund in Abuja on Monday.
He said, “We are having threat of insecurity and a lot of students have been kidnapped, so we need a lot of security in the institutions to make students learn in a conducive environment.
“We need to appreciate the Federal Government for these interventions. What could our institutions be without you? The states are struggling, the country is struggling in terms of economic hardship, depreciation of naira, high food stuffs, effect on removal of Subsidy.
“The northern part is struggling with insecurity. The resources we receive will not be adequate to address the challenges in the state so TETFund is a place we can come to for support.”
The governor explained that the interventions would provide the needed infrastructure for the safety of the students, adding that the state is in the process of converting its ICT institution to a university of technology.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, explained that insecurity was a national issue, but promised that the necessary infrastructure would be put in place to address them.
Echono said the fund had prioritised all the trouble spots with measures in place to address the issues.
“Giving the expansion in tertiary institutions in recent times, I am aware we are in the process of getting University of Transportation into the mainstream of our interventions. We have seven to eight institutions in the state benefiting from TETFund. Katsina is in the eyes of problems of insecurity.”
He said the fund had already priortised Katsina in its security intervention because President Bola Tinubu is determined that in times of crisis, education must not stop.
“The president has said that we must bring those out of school back to school, expand existing programmes and more significantly is expanding access in leveraging technology and providing for indigent students,” he said.
