The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has released over ₦100 billion to selected tertiary institutions across Nigeria to expand medical sciences training and tackle the country’s shortage of healthcare professionals.
Chairman of the TETFUND Governing Board, Aminu Masari, disclosed this in Katsina on Saturday, stressing that the intervention aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to reverse the brain drain in the health sector.
“The President is particularly worried by the trend and how it is affecting the Nigerian healthcare system. He wants to institute measures in place to enable the healthcare system to recover through deliberate policies such as this ongoing intervention by TETFUND,” Masari said.
According to him, three tertiary institutions in each geopolitical zone have received ₦4 billion each to implement projects and expand academic programmes aimed at increasing capacity to admit and train more students in medical fields.
“The aim is to double the number of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians and other skilled professionals in the healthcare system. This will no doubt enhance healthcare delivery in the country.
“Every fiscal year, TETFUND carries out interventions at state and zonal levels, but because we have to spread our impact throughout the country, this medical sciences project is TETFUND’s high-impact intervention for 2025,” he added.
Masari explained that the Fund has a monitoring and evaluation team, comprising consultants who visit beneficiary institutions to ensure funds are used strictly for approved projects.
He revealed that the 2025 allocation is TETFUND’s highest grant yet — ₦1.6 trillion — generated from the 3% education tax on company profits as stipulated in the TETFUND Act. Of this amount, ₦460 billion was set aside for various interventions across tertiary institutions.
“For the state-level intervention, three institutions were selected in each state — one university, one polytechnic and one College of Education — to benefit from the intervention. The interventions are based on demand; the institutions write to us, and we select and approve projects for them based on their needs and the resources available,” Masari explained.
He further disclosed that ₦225 billion from the ₦1.6 trillion allocation was released to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund for the Federal Government’s student loan initiative, while ₦70 billion was earmarked to support energy projects in tertiary institutions, such as solar or gas-powered generation facilities.
In addition, TETFUND has made a provision of ₦25 billion to strengthen campus security in selected institutions.
“The institutions will use the intervention for various projects that pertain to security, such as the installation of street lights within their campuses and other similar projects,” Masari said.
