The Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, has received N550 million from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, or TETFund, in order to address institutional insecurity.
When a delegation from the Kaduna State Government, led by the governor of the state, Sen. Uba Sani, paid the TETFund’s executive secretary, Arc Sonny Echono, a courtesy call on Monday at the fund’s Abuja headquarters, he revealed this.
Echono said that the fund also gave N500 million to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for the completion of one project and for designating it a centre of excellence, noting that the payout was above and beyond the usual allocations.
According to him, the same sum was also granted to Kaduna State University to finish various projects on its Kafanchan campus. He said that the cash will speed up the completion of some university projects that had previously encountered difficulties.
After a cycle of six years since the state last benefitted, the TETFund chairman gave the state government the assurance that one of the public tertiary institutions in the state will benefit from the TETFund’s special high impact intervention in 2024.
He also promised to look into the state governor’s request for help in constructing an agriculture faculty at the Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic in Zaria in order to help the school’s courses grow.
“We already made certain exceptional allocations this year in addition to the regular allocations that all institutions get. For instance, ABU Zaria was not only acknowledged as a centre of excellence, where we aim to establish a unique centre for education, but we also provided them with an additional 500 million dollars to finish a particular project.
“Kaduna State University received the same amount to finish various work on your Kafanchan campus. I can confirm that we gave the Kaduna State College of Education in Gidan Waya, the college of education you mentioned, which has a security concern, N550 million a few weeks or days ago to solve the issue of security.
“We created a sequence that the honourable commissioners have been following for the exceptional high impact projects on a zonal basis. Consequently, Kaduna State should take the lead in the coming year. I’ll verify and am certain that Kaduna will host the unique high impact event either the following year or the year after.
We have a rotation of five years, and I believe the most recent time we went there was in 2019. One state at a time. Because of the equality involved in what we do, when a state profits from a certain zone, the money first flows to other states before returning to that state.
Particularly when the North West zone was created and the arbitrary decision to create seven states was made. So, in an effort to achieve some level of balance, we try to solve that by keeping it to six. Therefore, I believe Kudana State should join in now for a special high effect cycle,” he added.
He mentioned Kaduna as one of the states where the fund has received the greatest support. He also mentioned that Kaduna is home to the TETFund’s North West headquarters, not by chance as the state formerly served as the administrative centre for the whole northern area of Nigeria.
He claims that the Kaduna State Government assigned a highly desirable location with a building on it for the fund’s headquarters and that the contract for the development projects would be granted within the next month.
Sani, the governor of Kaduna State, had earlier asked the TETFund for additional assistance and intervention in a few of the state’s most important institutions, adding that he was also there to put more effort into making sure that interventions to state institutions are provided as quickly as possible.
He stated that he has been following such activities even as a senator and expressed appreciation for the effort made by TETFund to ensure that institutions across the country, including in Kaduna, are supplied the necessary infrastructure.
“As a senator who served in the National Assembly until a few months ago, I followed the TETFund’s efforts to promote national development in general and education in particular, and I’m here to say that we are really pleased by what knocked on our door.
Naturally, we’re also here to request further assistance and action in Kaduna State. Obviously, Kaduna State has contributed significantly to the TETFund. We were just recently able to provide the TETFund with one of Kaduna’s most significant plots of land on which to construct its zonal office.
“And I’m delighted to announce that we will support telephone to make sure you have all the required cooperation from our building departments to make sure they may proceed without any obstacles.
The Kaduna State Commissioner of Education, Prof. Muhammad Sani Bello, listed the areas where the state’s institutions needed help and said that all of them need attention.
Bello stated that the state has constructed a campus of the state’s college of education in order to give better access to students who might wish to enrol in the NCE programme, and that it requires assistance to be able to accelerate the growth of the campus.
Security is a different topic. Due to a lack of fencing and other amenities that would ensure security for both students and personnel at the institution, the college of education Gidan Waya in the Southern part of Kaduna has been dealing with a lot of security issues. We also need to take action in that area.
