* Senator George Akume.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume (CON), has charged tertiary institutions to match greater federal investment in education with greater accountability, prompt utilisation of funds, and measurable impact on teaching, research and graduates.
Akume gave the charge on Wednesday in Abuja during the 2026 TETFund Town Hall Dialogue with Stakeholders.
The SGF was represented at the event by Pharm. Aliyu Zakari-Jiya, PhD.
Describing tertiary education as national development infrastructure, the SGF said Nigeria’s greatest natural resource is not only what lies beneath the soil but what sits in its classrooms, laboratories, workshops and libraries.
“Nigeria’s greatest natural resource is not only what lies beneath our soil. It is also what sits in our classrooms, our laboratories, our workshops and our libraries… the talent, curiosity and enterprise of the Nigerian people,” Akume said.
He stressed that education must not be seen as one sector competing with roads, power or health, but as the conveyor belt that produces the engineers who build roads, the scientists who improve agriculture, the doctors who protect health, and the innovators who will create future industries.
According to him, investment in tertiary education is investment in productivity, competitiveness, social mobility and national resilience, adding that the core question stakeholders must ask is: “What national capability has Nigeria created through our investment in tertiary education?”
Senator Akume said TETFund’s statutory mandate covers physical infrastructure, instructional materials and equipment, research and publication, and academic staff training and development, with requirements for monitoring, evaluation and audited reporting.
He warned that tertiary institutions will not succeed with buildings alone.
“This understanding is important because there is no modern university, polytechnic, college of education, that will succeed with buildings only. Research, well equipped workshops, knowledge development infrastructure for training teachers must be present,” he said.
He noted that TETFund investment has become phenomenal under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), and that this brings both opportunity and responsibility. The return on investment, he said, must be measured not simply by buildings erected, but by better teaching, scholarship, governance and graduates.
The SGF called for reforms that ensure postgraduate training strengthens Nigerian institutions, research moves from laboratory to marketplace and public policy, and institutions share costly facilities to produce more patents, licences, start-ups and solutions to national problems.
He also emphasised student experience, including accommodation, reliable power, connectivity, laboratories, libraries and safe campuses.
Raising a major concern, Akume disclosed that reports available to his office show some institutions have delayed accessing allocations already made available to them.
“This self-inflicted challenge could be overcome if boards and governing councils make oversight, maintenance and measurable impact central to their stewardship,” he said, urging institutions to access funds promptly, deliver projects properly, maintain what has been built, and report what investments achieve.
He assured that the administration will protect predictable tertiary-education investment and ensure that TETFund complements, rather than substitutes for, the responsibilities of institutional proprietors, while building stronger partnerships with industry, alumni, students and civil society to commercialise research, support scholarships, protect public assets and hold all stakeholders accountable.
“The ultimate measure of TETFund’s impact will be the capability Nigeria builds. Let us build institutions worthy of Nigeria’s ambition and human capital equal to Nigeria’s promise,” Akume concluded.
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