By Hajara Leman
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has executed 11 projects at the Gombe State University worth N4.5 billion.
The Executive Secretary of Tetfund, Mr Sonny Echono, said this at the inauguration ceremony of the projects at the university main campus on Friday in Gombe.
According to him, since the university’s enlistment as beneficiary of the Fund in 2006 to 2023, TETFund has allocated more than N15 billion for infrastructure-related interventions, cutting across the Annual, Special and Zonal interventions, among others.
He expressed satisfaction that the projects undertaken with the fund had impacted on the mandate of the university in facilitating teaching, learning and research.
Echono also commended the university management in partnering with the Federal Government in its efforts at making public tertiary institutions centres of excellence, research and discovery, as well as a drive towards making the institutions globally competitive.
He noted that completing projects amidst the prevailing economic situation was not easy.
However, he said despite the challenges, the projects were delivered, urging the university to ensure that the facilities were well maintained to avoid dilapidation.
The TetFund executive scribe assured that the Fund would continue to support the institution’s drive for creativity through meaningful research endeavours.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Aliyu Elnafaty, said since its establishment the institution has benefited from the Fund’s various intervention projects, including lecture halls, laboratories, libraries and ICT facilities.
On manpower development, he said the Fund has sponsored about 500 academic staff for postgraduate studies from Masters up to PhD levels at various universities within and outside the country.
On his part, the Visitor to the university, who is the state Governor, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, announced that the Dukku campus of the institution would soon take off with the Faculty of Environmental Studies.
Yahaya noted that 80 per cent of the structures in the university were executed by TetFund, noting that its Senate building would soon be constructed under the Special Intervention fund.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that TetFund also inaugurated four projects at the Federal College of Education Technical, Gombe, also executed under various interventions. (NAN)
