The Federal Government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, has approved the disbursement of intervention funds to 271 tertiary institutions across the country, covering universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
The approval follows earlier consent granted by Bola Tinubu for the Year 2026 intervention cycle, aimed at strengthening physical infrastructure, improving academic programmes, expanding research and innovation, and driving broad transformation within Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
Details of the disbursement were announced in Abuja on Tuesday during the annual disbursement meeting. The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sunny Echono, said each university would receive N2,525,932,228.02, while each polytechnic would get N1,871,059,920.53. According to him, every college of education will receive N2,056,527,973.04 under the approved funding structure.
Echono explained that the disbursement cycle is structured to ensure effective use of funds. He said 90.75 percent of the allocation will be released as direct disbursement, made up of 50.00 percent annual direct disbursement and 40.75 percent special direct disbursement. He added that designated projects account for 9.07 percent, while stabilization funds represent 0.18 percent of the total allocation.
While outlining the figures, the TETFund executive secretary raised concerns about delays by some beneficiary institutions. He said several institutions have been slow in processing projects for approval in principle and in completing due process requirements for implementation. According to him, these delays affect timely execution and overall impact of the interventions.
He advised heads of beneficiary institutions to improve their planning processes. “Institutional heads are advised to execute their procurement planning processes early enough to avoid these delays,” Echono said.
Echono also expressed concern over the slow adoption of the Tertiary Education Research Application Services platform. “Also worrisome is the slow and reluctant utilization of the TERAS platform with all its associated services by some beneficiary institutions. The Fund will be paying closer attention to this in the year 2026,” he stated.
He further called for better understanding of TETFund guidelines, especially for training and content-related interventions. “The Fund also expect better documentation and knowledge of its guidelines for its training and content intervention lines. This should mitigate the challenges and problems experiences by scholars across beneficiary institution,” he cautioned.
According to Echono, TETFund has introduced a new intervention line for 2026 to strengthen research quality and impact. The initiative, known as the Nigerian Research and Education Network, Ng REN, is designed to improve access to global academic resources and integrate the TERAS platform into NgREN starting from the 2026 intervention cycle.
“With these investments, the Year 2026 promises to be a year of growth, innovation, and measurable impact,” he said.
He announced an expansion of special intervention projects to include the establishment of Centres for Robotics, Coding and AI Machine Learning, as well as Centres for Cybersecurity Studies in selected institutions. Echono also disclosed that 12 additional institutions will benefit from the commercial farm project, including two universities, eight polytechnics, and two colleges of education.
The executive secretary said the Fund will continue upgrading research and development offices, supporting student hostel projects through Public–Private Partnerships, and sustaining interventions in security infrastructure, abandoned projects, and disaster recovery measures.
He added that laboratory development and agriculture will receive a major boost. “We are enhancing the ongoing multipurpose laboratory projects, setting up two new ones, and creating new agricultural laboratories and demonstration farms,” Echono said.
He also highlighted plans to strengthen the ICT roadmap through expanded digital services, ICT Experience Centres, subscription-based internet access, and continued advancement of TERAS.
Echono thanked the Federal Inland Revenue Service for its role in education tax collection in 2025. “As we prepare to commence the Year 2026 intervention cycle, I urge all Heads of Beneficiary Institutions to ensure the full utilization of their 2025 allocations and look forward to an engaging interaction that will further shape our interventions,” he said.
