The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Mr. Sonny Echono has called on tertiary institutions domiciled in Nigeria to produce entrepreneurs and not just graduates.
Mr. Echono, who was newly appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, made the call in Abuja, the country’s capital territory, when the Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Simon Lalong paid him a courtesy visit at the Fund’s Headquarters.
The TETFund boss opined that the investments in creating entrepreneurs would go a long way to curbing the menace of unemployment and consequently tackle the socio-economic problems prevalent in the country.
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He said one of his fundamental goals was to make tertiary institutions a place to produce entrepreneurs, noting with the support of the Federal Government (FG), TETFUND plans to reinforce the huge investments in the 13 new universities to fast track their rate of progress with a view to achieving the purpose of establishing them.
He stated that the present administration of President Buhari had greatly given his full support to education, adding this was evident in the recent Presidential approval of upward review of Education Tax from 2% to 2.5%, which would enable TETFUND to cope with the increasing demands.
Mr. Echono expressed optimism that the education tax would likely increase to 3% as the government increases education investment, saying such a step would go into expanding the frontiers of education.
“The increased tax would facilitate the implementation of more developmental projects in the education sector” , he said.
The Executive Secretary showed appreciation at the show of support from Gov. Lalong, while pledging continued commitment to the development of tertiary education in his home State.
In his remark, Gov. Lalong lauded the fund for the numerous iconic projects dotting the tertiary institutions in Plateau State, saying TETFUND had now become a lifeline for the schools.
He therefore sought the continuity of the good work by the Fund, expressing his appreciation for its contribution to the development of education in his State and the Northern region at large.
He further expressed optimism that the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Fund would keep up the good work of his predecessor, Prof. Elias Bogoro.
He assured Mr. Echono of his support in discharging his duties as the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, to make sure the Executive Secretary gets the needed support of other Northern governors.
The Director of the Office of the Executive Secretary, Mr. Uchendu Wogu noted that all the good works by TETFund as identified by Gov. Lalong, were the mandate of the agency, which remained obligatory to fulfill.
He thus expressed gratitude to the institutions in the State for their transparency in utilizing their allocated funds while making it possible to attract more funds for the development of the institutions.
Aside from the call by the TETFund Executive Secretary, it was already obvious that it’s high time the chief executives of these institutions started making moves to ensure their respective wards emerge entrepreneurs after graduation.
The contemporary global society is conducive for only job creators, not seekers. This is an indication that time has come for our various tertiary institutions to change the existing pattern of impacting knowledge on their numerous students.
This is one of the reasons I had called the concerned authorities, for the umpteenth time, to revisit the ongoing Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) towards ensuring that it becomes more result-oriented technically.
The bone of contention remains that we need to overhaul the system to create an environment that would boast of producing entrepreneurs or job creators as graduates.