The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), said on Tuesday that its approvals for research grants would double in 2021, from over 128 approvals made in 2020.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, said the approvals would be announced as soon the Board of Trustees gave its nod.
Professor Bogoro disclosed this in Abuja while receiving a contingent of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPS, Kuru, Senior Executive Course 43, 2021.
He explained that qualified institutions would draw a maximum of N50 million research grants from the N7.5 billion National Research Fund, NRF.
The TETFund boss said in the 2021 budget, which is awaiting approval, the agency would fund the establishment of more molecular labs and research on gene sequencing and phytogenic medicine, as well as vaccine research and production, as a key area of unraveling the lethal covid-19 pandemic.
According to him, under the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari, the fund provided research intervention between N250 to N300 million, to set up, at least, a quarter of the molecular labs established in the country.
“We discovered that those facilities are helpful for both research and clinical purposes and such facilities will help sustain medical research in the country,” he was quoted by National Accord newspaper to have said.
He also disclosed that funds were made available to some medical research institutes and colleges for the purpose of research.
Professor Bogoro also noted that 90 per cent of lecturers in Nigerian universities currently had PhDs, stating that 9 years ago, only 40 per cent of university lecturers in the country had PhDs, and by 2015, over 60 per cent acquired PhDs.
He said more than 80 per cent of libraries in public tertiary institutions were TETFund-provided libraries.
He commended Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi for its ingenuity in formulating a system of tracking cattles that had been rustled; as well as Redeemers University for its advanced research on gene sequencing; and Covenant University for being ranked among the best universities in the world.
While speaking on NIPS, Bogoro said since the institute was carefully constituted in 1979, it had remained so with representation from the military, various ministries, and others, who were working on behalf of the country with a high sense of responsibility.
He added that some of the most cerebral academics and administrators in other sectors had served in NIPS, either at the directorate cadre or otherwise.
On the TETFund’s impact, he said one of the priority areas of the fund’s intervention was the academic staff members’ development, adding that human capital development was at the center of the fund’s interventions.
He noted that Nigeria should have been happier after the announcement that it’s economy was the number one economy, but for the un-impactful nature of its GDP growth, there was no way a majority of its population can be happy.
He said a number of Asian and European countries that were nowhere near Nigeria at independence had leapfrogged and left Nigeria very far behind because of its level of human capital development.
He added that although Singapore shared similarities with Nigeria as a multiethnic nation, it had risen far and above its competitors because of its investment in human capital.
“At a point Nigerian universities were reduced to politics where everyone wanted to be a professor and every professor wanted to be a Vice Chancellor, and were not concerned about research,” he said.
On inclusive education, he decried the elites neglect of public institutions.
“Where education excludes any segment of the society, we are being unfair to that segment of our population. For some us, at our age, who are privileged and controlling a number of things, we belonged to to a segment of society that got education free if charge.
“A situation where public servants who benefited from the free education programme of the government now send their children to private schools abroad is unacceptable,” he said.
He urged NIPS and statutorily non-beneficiary institutions to use a windows of partnership with beneficiary institutions and apply for research grants through them.
The TETFund boss added that the law only allowed the fund to provide funds directly to university, polytechnics and colleges of education.
He said TETFund could however indirectly provide assistance to other institutions through a partnership with a beneficiary institution, which could make a case for the partnering institution.
Earlier, the Acting Director-General of NIPS, Brig. Gen. Chukwuemeka Udaya, said the institute, which is over 43 years, had carefully served every government.
Udaya disclosed the issue for study in 2021 was getting things done, adding that this year, seven groups were visiting various institutions including TETFund which has been active in getting things done.
He further disclosed that the essence of visiting was to find out, deepen and further understand how TETFund has been able to get things done. (National Accord)
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