The Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund has raised concern over a projected decline in revenue available to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), warning that reduced funding threatens the pace of infrastructure development across Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mohammed Dandutse, voiced the concern during a legislative oversight visit to Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) in Lagos. The delegation inspected TETFund-sponsored projects for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 intervention cycles and held discussions with the institution’s leadership, staff, and students.
According to Senator Dandutse, stakeholder projections indicate that TETFund’s total distributable allocation for the current year will drop significantly compared to previous years.
“The development could affect the pace of infrastructure development in universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, particularly as the government continues to establish and expand tertiary institutions across the country,” Dandutse stated. He stressed that sustainable national development requires prioritizing funding for the education sector while ensuring strict transparency and accountability in public spending.
During the visit, YABATECH Rector, Dr. Ibraheem Abdul, detailed the severe physical constraints facing the institution, which accommodates roughly 35,400 students and over 2,000 staff members on a constrained landmass. Preparing for its 80th anniversary next year, the college has begun replacing colonial-era structures with modern, multi-storey facilities to maximize space efficiency.
Dr. Abdul noted that YABATECH has strategically pooled multi-year TETFund interventions to finance high-impact projects, repurposed legacy administrative plots for academic use, and begun developing a satellite campus. He added that while admission demand remains extraordinarily high, the college strictly complies with Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) quotas while expanding practical skills training alongside traditional ND and HND programs.
Commending the institution’s space management, committee member Senator Shuaibu Afolabi urged YABATECH to pair its vertical building strategy with digital infrastructure. He advised the management to expand remote learning platforms, establish international institutional partnerships, and secure supplementary funding from federal ICT and innovation agencies to bolster TETFund allocations.
