Nigerian Govt Pledges Improved Funding for Inter-university Centres

The Nigerian government has promised to initiate strategies towards exploring dynamic funding solutions for the nation’s four inter-university centres.

The country’s four inter-university centres are the National Mathematical Centre (NMC), the National Institute for Nigerian Languages, the Nigerian French Language Village, and the Nigerian Arabic Language Centre.

Speaking on Wednesday during an interactive session with the chief executive officers of these centres, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, said part of the strategies to achieve improved funding will be by establishing a constructive dialogue involving the ministry, the centres, and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).

A statement issued on Wednesday by the Federal Ministry of Education and signed by its Director of Press and Public Relations, Ben Goong, noted that the ultimate goal is to seamlessly integrate the inter-university centres into TETFUND’s funding framework, ushering in an era of sustained financial support.

The education minister appealed to the academic community and urged both the public and private universities across the country to patronise the centres for their training programmes.

According to the statement, Mr Sununu pledged to support the cause for increased funding.

He promised that he would interface with his former colleagues at the National Assembly to make a case for improved funding for the centres, adding that training and research are key to national development.

Addressing the minister, the chief executives of the centres lamented the challenges of inadequate funding, low patronage, and inability of their academic staff to rise to the professorial cadre level owing to statutory constraints, as well as poor and dilapidated infrastructure.