The country’s universities and other tertiary institutions will get uninterrupted electricity thanks to a partnership between the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
This was said by Arc. Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of the TETFund, on Tuesday when Salihijo Ahmad, the Managing Director of REA, paid him a courtesy call at his office in Abuja.
The Energizing Education Programme (EEP) program by REA in a few colleges and teaching hospitals around the nation is commended by Echono, who stated that the significance of a consistent power supply in postsecondary institutions cannot be overstated.
All of us agree that this is crucial for us as we work to enhance our institutions’ physical infrastructure as well as their ICT and research infrastructures.
Many of these need a steady source of electricity. Some samples need to be kept at a specific temperature for an extended amount of time. In a medical laboratory, there are some procedures you can’t afford to stop, not even for a split second.
“And one of the main things we can do is to guarantee power in our campuses if we really want to guarantee a learning environment that can compete with others around the globe,” Echono stated.
The head of the TETFund also urged REA to relaunch the initiative at a few of the recipient institutions that have had difficulties with the EEP.
He said that for future iterations of the program, TETFund will investigate the prospect of obtaining longer-term financing from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
“You can obtain long-term financing at a reasonable interest rate, which will allow us to accomplish more,” stated Echono.
According to Salihijo, the EEP has already started at 24 universities and a few teaching hospitals nationwide. Its goal was to offer 37 federal institutions and seven university teaching hospitals with a clean, sustainable power source.
