Report On Alleged N7.6bn Questionable Contracts Misleading, Says TETFund

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has dismissed a report by an online newspaper on the alleged award of N7.6 billion questionable contracts within two months.

The Fund, in a statement signed by its Acting Director, Public Affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi, described the report as untrue and misleading.

According to TETFund, the two projects under reference in the report were not contracts but Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects being implemented under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) arrangement with two global academies.

It was alluded in the said publication that questionable contracts amounting to the tune of N7.6bn were awarded by TETFund, thereby usurping the powers of President Bola Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council (FEC); and that the Fund acted outside its mandate in carrying out capacity building programmes in its Beneficiary Institutions.

“We consider this publication as totally spurious and misleading and therefore find it necessary to provide background information and clarifications for the benefit of our various stakeholders and the general public,” the statement said.

It explained that two global academies handling the projects, Anthology USA; owners of Blackboard Inc., a leading global educational technology academy providing Blackboard Ultra Learning Management System and Edunet Academy, a global learning academy providing certification tracks in communication, entrepreneurship and employability skills development, are academies and owners of the intellectual property rights for their different products which does not make them open for competitive biddings in public procurements.

“As part of measures to leverage on ICT in the transformation of the Nigerian tertiary educational sub-sector, three specialized committees were constituted by the Fund as follows:

“ICT Infrastructure Project Committee headed by Late. Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo Gowon (former Chairman, Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities).

“TETFund Advisory Committee on Digital Literacy, Productivity and Emerging Skills headed by Prof. Olagbemiro Jegede (VC Emeritus National Open University of Nigeria)
“Digitization Project Steering /Coordinating Committee headed by Prof. Yakubu Ochefu (Secretary-General, Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities),” the statement said.

It further disclosed that an ICT roadmap was developed and is being implemented by the Fund in conjunction with Beneficiary Institutions since 2016.

The statement added that relying on the recommendations of the committees which were presented and accepted by all the heads of Beneficiary Institutions at the Fund’s Annual Stakeholders forum, it was agreed that, the sum of N100m be allocated for ICT support intervention for every University, N50m for every Polytechnic and N50m for every College of Education.

“Of this amount, 50 percent was to be utilised for Infrastructure and procurement based on the peculiar needs of the institutions, while the balance of 50 percent was earmarked for the converged services inclusive of educational resource subscriptions, software licenses and specialised capacity development programmes for both academic/non-academic staff as well as students.

“The cost of implementation for Blackboard Learn Ultra is N3,812,500.00 which translates to N14,607,279.69 per institution for the Fund’s 261 Beneficiary Institutions. The same applies to the certification in communication, entrepreneurship, and employability skills development project,” it explained.

The statement noted that the partnership with the two academies to execute the ICT roadmap of the Fund endorsed by Beneficiary Institutions were not carried out as contracts adding that the ICT needs of beneficiary Institutions were aggregated for bulk negotiation to take advantage of economies of scale where 60 percent cost saving was achieved.

“For the report to allude that TETFund acted illegally in empowering students with ICT skills clearly indicates that the reporters are ignorant of the Fund’s mandate and responsibilities. The Fund continues to make giant strides in ensuring that Nigerian Tertiary Institutions are globally competitive. This much was acknowledged at the Innovate African Conference 2024 held at Havard Graduate School of Education in the United States only two weeks ago.

The statement also affirmed that all TETFund Disbursement Guidelines are approved by Mr. President on the recommendation of the Fund’s Board of Trustees and concurrence of the Honourable Minister of Education in line with the TETFund Act 2011.

“We therefore, state unequivocally that at no time did the Fund make any attempt to usurp Mr. President’s powers or that of the Federal Executive Council, or award contracts without due process; as the entire write-up was based on the wrong assumption that contracts were awarded by the Fund.

“While we frown at attempts by certain elements to tarnish the Fund’s image for selfish purposes, we call on our Beneficiary Institutions, stakeholders and the general public who have always supported and appreciated the efforts of the Fund to ignore these campaigns of calumny.

“We wish to reassure you that the Fund will continue to act responsibly and in line with due process in all its activities,” the statement concluded.