The Tertiary Education Trust Fund is spending N30bn on training of academic staff in 2021, Chairman, Board of Trustees of TETFund, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, has said.
He said this was in addition to the various infrastructural developmental projects being executed by the agency.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday while inaugurating the Fund’s National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee (NRFS&MC) and the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), he said the training was for higher master’s degrees and PhDs.
“In the related field of academic staff training and development, TETFund is spending N30bn this year; training universities’ scholars as well as scholars from polytechnics and the colleges of education for higher degrees of master’s and PhDs.”
TETFund Executive Secretary, Suleiman Bogoro, said N6.3bn had been approved for 217 research proposals recommended by the National Research Fund (NRF) under the 2020 grant cycle exercise.
He said the amount approved under the grant cycle concluded in January almost equalled the N6.7bn disbursed for 240 pieces of research from 2012 to 2019.
The TETFund Board of Trustees set up the NRF Screening and Monitoring Committee (NRFS&MC) and charged it with the implementation and administration of the intervention.
“A seed fund of N3bn was approved by the Board of Trustees in 2011 for the initial take-off, augmented with an additional N1bn in 2015. Upon my reinstatement in 2019, we transformed the NRF into an annual intervention and enlarged the funding envelope to N5bn. As at the 2020 iteration of the NRF grant cycle, we had increased the funding pot to N7.5bn.
“For 2021, we’ve made available N8.5bn, indicating a clear progression and our determination to keep moving in the right direction,” Bogoro said.
He said private universities could now take advantage of the Fund by teaming up with eligible beneficiary institutions to compete for research grants.
