The Vice-Chancellor of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Professor Ayodeji Agboola, has urged the Federal Government not to scrap or reduce funding for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) due to the creation of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
Prof. Agboola made the appeal during a visit by the Chairman of TETFund’s South West Zone, Hon. Sunday Adepoju, who was at the university for a project inspection and familiarisation tour.
He described TETFund as a vital pillar supporting Nigeria’s tertiary education, noting that its projects and academic training programs have helped many institutions, including OOU. He said scrapping or merging TETFund with NELFUND would be counterproductive, as both agencies serve different but important purposes one for infrastructure and staff development and the other for student loans.
“TETFund has been crucial to this university’s development. I benefited from it during my PhD in Nottingham and so have many of my colleagues,” he said. “If you give loans to students but there are no classrooms or learning facilities, it defeats the purpose.”
He stressed that both TETFund and NELFUND should operate side by side to improve student access and learning conditions. Prof. Agboola also called on the government to reverse its decision on halting overseas training for Nigerian scholars.
In response, Hon. Adepoju praised OOU for properly using its TETFund allocations, noting that no projects were abandoned and that funds had been well managed. He assured the university that more support would come, saying, “You have shown that taxpayers’ money is being well spent and that will encourage us to do more.”