TETFund to Withhold Funding to Tertiary Institutions with Abandoned Projects

The board of trustees of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund has announced that tertiary institutions with delayed or abandoned TETFund-funded projects will be barred from accessing new intervention projects under the 2027 allocation cycle unless they complete outstanding projects.

In a statement on Wednesday, TETFund’s spokesman, Abdulmumin Oniyangi, said the BOT chair Aminu Masari issued the directive.

“The board of trustees has taken a final stand on the issue of delay in completion of approved projects in all its beneficiary institutions, warning that affected institutions will not get approval to commence new projects in the 2027 allocation cycle,” it stated.

It explained that the move would address persistent delays in executing intervention projects across beneficiary institutions. Concerned institutions must prioritise completing their projects using annual, zonal and high-impact intervention allocations, maintaining that “no new projects will be admitted from the identified beneficiary institutions for the 2027 intervention cycle”.

While acknowledging that external factors such as fluctuations in construction material prices, initially contributed to project delays, the board introduced a special intervention line in 2023 to enable institutions to complete affected projects.

“The reasons given for the unacceptable development were volatility in market prices of key building materials like cement, reinforcement bars, sanitary and electrical fittings, among others. This informed the introduction of a new intervention line dedicated to completing the affected projects. A recent review confirmed that the initiative yielded the desired result as many of the affected projects have been completed following this intervention,” the statement explained.

It noted that despite this success, fresh cases of delayed projects attributed to institutional leadership and administrative bottlenecks rather than funding constraints, still exist.

According to TETFund, the avoidable development is largely due to a lack of continuity in project implementation by heads of beneficiary institutions who prefer to start new projects, as well as delays in processing payments to contractors handling the projects.

The board approved measures, including identifying the causes of the delays and establishing stronger project supervision mechanisms, to address the recurring challenge of delayed projects across higher institutions.

This latest development came amid TETFund’s efforts to ensure beneficiaries utilise intervention funds to deepen teaching and learning, research and infrastructure across tertiary institutions.