Vice Chancellors of government-owned universities in the country have been presented with letters of allocation for the N200bn intervention fund of the Federal Government.
During the presentation at a meeting with vice chancellors of the universities in Abuja, Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike advised the institutions to make maximum use of the funds to upgrade the standard of learning.
Restating the commitment of the Federal Government to improving university education, Wike urged the vice chancellors to note that a time would come when each institution would account for its own funds, so that the people would be kept abreast of efforts of the government towards revamping the education sector.
“It is imperative that the public know how much government is investing in tertiary education, and correct the impression that it is neglecting the sector”, Wike said, adding that the exercise would be conducted in the six-geopolitical zones of the country, beginning from 4th March 2014 with the North-Central Zone at the Federal College of Agriculture, Makurdi.
“The South-East zone would converge at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, on 11th March, while the session in the South-South zone would be at the University of Port Harcourt on 10th March 2014”, he further revealed.
“Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, would host the North-West zone, while the South-West zone would hold at the University of Ibadan on a date that will be announced later”.
However, he explained that the exercise should not be misconstrued as an audit of the financial expenditure of the institutions, rather as a public sensitisation programme on ongoing efforts to resuscitate the sector.
The presentation of the allocations is in fulfilment of the Federal Government’s approval of a N200bn funding for universities in the 2014 budget, made during last year’s nationwide industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).