By FRED EZEH, Abuja

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has approved N1 billion each for 12 institutions for the establishment of additional Centres of Excellence (COEs) in tertiary institutions.

This was in addition to 12 Centres of Excellence earlier established in universities in the 2020 interventions.

The selected institutions include Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa; Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau State; Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi; Federal College Education, Yola; Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna; Federal College of Education, Zaria;

Others are Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Imo State; Alvan Ikoku Federal of Education, Owerri, Imo State; Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State; Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers State; Yaba College of Technology, Lagos; and Adeyemi College Education, Ondo.

TETFund Executive Secretary, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, in a statement released in Abuja, on Thursday, said that two institutions, a Polytechnics and a College of Education, were selected in each geopolitical zone and would be funded for a period of five years.

Prof. Bogoro, thus, charged the benefiting institutions to hit the ground running and ensure that they strengthen sustainability beyond the year 2026.

‘You have been painstakingly selected to host the second batch of TETFund Centres of Excellence. While it is appropriate to feel justifiably proud for being deemed worthy of selection from among dozens of eligible candidate institutions, I hasten to draw your attention to the huge burden of expectation that comes with your choice as the pioneer beneficiary institutions of this initiative with immense national significance,’ he said.

The TETFund boss said that each selected institution is expected to implement its own approved programmes, with the objective to address a specific national development challenge through the preparation of professionals, applied research and associated outreach activities to partners, especially community services.

‘The six selected Polytechnics will focus on technical skills development and entrepreneurship education.’

He said one of the basic strategic aims for the establishment of Centres of Excellence is to support strategic and application-oriented research and expertise with potential industrial applications.

‘This means supporting national and globally competitive research and development in strategic and applied sciences including medicine and engineering with the aim of generating innovations.

‘This is usually done with a focus on government-defined priority areas, needed for technical development and industrial.

‘This includes concentrating multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and translational research competence in order to further the development of products, processes and services typically by focusing on problems that demand larger efforts than can be provided by smaller projects.

‘Bridging the gap between researchers and users, and stimulating and strengthening triple-helix relationships.’ (Daily Sun)

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