FG Present Letters Of Allocation Of The N200b Intervention Fund To Public Universities.

The Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, on Monday
presented letters of allocation for the N200 billion intervention fund
to all public universities in the country.
Wike, who made the presentation at a meeting with vice chancellors of
the universities in Abuja, urged the beneficiary institutions to
utilise the funds and take them to the desired level.
He noted that the Federal Government was committed to improving
university education in the country, and tasked the vice chancellors
to ensure that the funds were used to improve infrastructure in their
universities.
While expressing the hope that the money would be utilised within the
year, Wike said government would start to render public account of
what tertiary institutions did from next month.
He said all the institutions would account for the funds allocated to
them, and let the people know what the government was doing to improve
the education sector.
Wike said it was imperative that the public knew how much government
was investing in tertiary education, and correct the impression that
it was neglecting the sector.
He said that the exercise would be conducted in the six geopolitical
zones of the country, beginning from March 4 with the North-Central
Zone at the Federal College of Agriculture, Makurdi.
He said that the South-East zone would converge at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, on March 11, while the session in the South-South
zone would be at the University of Port Harcourt on March 10.
Wike said that the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, would host the
North-West zone, while the South-West zone would hold at the
University of Ibadan on a date to be announced.
Wike urged the institutions not to see the exercise as an audit of
their financial expenditure, but a public sensitisation programme on
what they were doing to revitalise the tertiary education sector.
He said that the events would be transmitted live on the media, to
show the sincerity of government, and how the funds were utilised by
the various institutions.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government, in a bid to end the
protracted strike by ASUU in 2013, approved a N200 billion increase in
university funding in the 2014 budget.
The increment, according to the government, would continue for the
next four years until the universities meet world standards. (NAN)