- Heads may roll at Tetfund, Education Ministry
By Jeremy Fregene
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been called in to investigate how a Polytechnic with only 30 students has been taking billions of naira as annual intervention funds from the Federal Government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
The four year old polytechnic, name withheld, is based in South East Nigeria. The startling discovery has set tongues wagging in the country’s education sector, with officials predicting that heads may roll at both Tetfund and the supervising Ministry of Education.
Tetfund’s Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, an architect and former diplomat, said yesterday in Abuja that the situation is shocking and embarrassing, and that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is already investigating the matter.
His words: “I was so embarrassed when it was brought to my attention that a particular polytechnic in the South East that has been there for four years has only 30 students, and we (TETFund) are disbursing billions (to the polytechnic).
“And who are the people they are spending the money on? We describe it as waste of money. It is so bad that EFCC is on it. I was shocked and I didn’t realise that it was that bad,” he said.
Echono expressed surprise that this was happening “in the Southeast of all places, while if you go to any state, including in the Northern region, you will see students from the Southeast in those institutions. Yet this polytechnic on their doorstep, has only 30 students, but it has been accessing all its annual disbursements.”
Echono was speaking at the 2025 one-day strategic interactive workshop for heads of institutions, bursars, and heads of procurement of TETFund beneficiary institutions,
He cautioned that institutions that fail to effectively access, utilize, or account for funds, or those not meeting enrollment and academic performance standards, risk losing eligibility for TETFund’s support programmes.
He explained that the policy is to protect the integrity and effectiveness of the Fund’s interventions, not to punish institutions.
He said that institutions that “consistently fail to access, utilize, or retire funds appropriately, or that fall short of enrollment and academic performance thresholds, risk being delisted as TETFund beneficiary institutions.”
According to him, the Fund has allocated over N70 billion for alternative power sources to beneficiary institutions this year which will come in the form of solar and hybrid power.
The Fund allocates significant funds to tertiary institutions annually, with polytechnics typically receiving around N1.165 billion a year, comprising N1.015 billion as direct disbursement and N150 million for zonal intervention.