TETFund money is for public institutions only — Bogoro

Private educational institutions will not benefit from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) says the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Prof Suleiman Elias Bogoro.

Speaking during an interview with Daily Trust, Bogoro said extending the Fund to private institutions will amount to the government subsidizing the private sector.

"Nowhere in the world has government subsidized the private sectors, it only provides enabling environment for them to thrive, and education institution cannot be an exception," Bogoro said.

"Government made it clear that the fund has to be for public tertiary institutions."

He said the reason for limiting the intervention to public institution is because the government's target is underprivileged persons.

"All governments target largest number of persons for intervention in development.

"Beyond that, government goes to the narrower premise of prioritizing intervention for children of the less privileged."

Bogoro explained that private universities' total carrying capacity is not more than what only two public universities admit, hence the need to focus on those that most Nigerian students study.

"The entire students' population of all private universities is between 70,000 and 80,000.

"You take only two public universities and you have that number. That is, two public universities have the population of all the 45 private universities.

"You can see why government says our intervention projects should be on public tertiary institutions because that is where the majority of students study, particularly those from less privileged families.

"Government is sensitive about addressing the challenges of the majority and the majority are the less privileged."

The Professor however called for an increase in allocation to the Fund or a dedicated research funds so that it could extend its support to private institutions.