The Board of Trustees of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has announced that tertiary institutions with delayed or abandoned TETFund-funded projects will not qualify for new intervention projects under the 2027 allocation cycle until all outstanding projects are completed.
The directive, issued by the Board Chairman, Aminu Masari, is aimed at tackling the persistent problem of abandoned and delayed projects across beneficiary institutions and ensuring that existing interventions are completed before fresh allocations are approved.
According to a statement by TETFund spokesperson Abdulmumin Oniyangi, the Board has resolved to take a tougher stance on project implementation to improve accountability and maximise the impact of intervention funds.
“The board of trustees has taken a final stand on the issue of delay in completion of approved projects in all its beneficiary institutions, warning that affected institutions will not get approval to commence new projects in the 2027 allocation cycle.”
TETFund directed affected institutions to prioritise the completion of ongoing projects through their Annual, Zonal and High-Impact Intervention allocations, stressing that institutions identified with outstanding projects would not be considered for fresh interventions in 2027.
“Accordingly, no new projects will be admitted from the identified beneficiary institutions for the 2027 intervention cycle.”
The Fund acknowledged that earlier project delays were largely driven by rising costs of construction materials, including cement, reinforcement bars, sanitary fittings and electrical components. To address the challenge, it introduced a dedicated intervention line in 2023 to support the completion of stalled projects, a move it said had yielded positive results.
“The reasons given for the unacceptable development were volatility in market prices of key building materials like cement, reinforcement bars, sanitary and electrical fittings, among others. This informed the introduction of a new intervention line dedicated to completing the affected projects. A recent review confirmed that the initiative yielded the desired result as many of the affected projects have been completed following this intervention.”
Despite that progress, the Board noted that new cases of delayed projects have emerged, attributing them largely to leadership changes, administrative bottlenecks and delays in processing contractors’ payments rather than inadequate funding. It also approved stricter monitoring measures, including enhanced project supervision and assessments, to ensure timely completion of intervention projects across Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions.
