The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Prof Suleiman Bogoro said a sum of N4.95 billion has been approved as a seed grant for Book Development Fund aimed at publishing and developing manuscripts into textbooks in tertiary institutions in the country.
Prof Bogoro said to ensure adequate production and supply of locally developed academic texts a seed of N2 billion was initially approved and now an additional sum of N2.95 billion was added out of which N2.589 billion has been utilized for the intended purpose.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Book Development Fund, Bogoro said there is critical paucity of indigenously produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in the nation’s education institutions.
While noting that it is worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired, he said the book intervention was deliberately created to restore the culture of research and high quality academic publishing within the higher education sub sector.
“It is expected that nurturing of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in diverse subjects areas that take cognizance of our local environment and sensitivities, it would also safeguard national pride,” he said.
He said the book development fund intervenes in areas of development and publication of academic books as well as conversion of high quality thesis into books, support professional association journals and establishment and sustainability of academic publishing centres.
