The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has announced the introduction of a special intervention program designed to address the persistent issue of power outages within tertiary institutions across the country.
This announcement was made by Aminu Masari, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of TETFund, on Wednesday in Abuja, during the inauguration of the steering committee for the Alternative Energy Solution Initiative in tertiary institutions.
Masari emphasized that this initiative reflects TETFund’s commitment to supporting the government’s efforts in ensuring a consistent and reliable power supply within Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
According to TETFund Chairman Masari, a former governor of Katsina State, the lack of consistent power supply is a significant obstacle to learning and research in tertiary institutions.
“We all know the combination of many factors to include the increase in tarrif which has become unbearable for these institutions, coupled withe other issues,” he said.
Masari added that the provision of reliable power supply was expected to improve the quality of education and research in tertiary institutions.
The Federal Government has made plans to provide steady power to tertiary institutions through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
The REA aims to provide captive solar hybrid power plants to 15 federal tertiary institutions and two teaching hospitals .
This initiative is part of the government’s efforts to increase electricity access to underserved Nigerians.
Despite the project’s unspecified completion date, the REA has significantly improved electricity access for underserved communities through the installation of more than 67 mini-grids and 995,396 solar home systems.
The steering committee, which has been mandated to submit its preliminary report within a two-month timeframe, is also anticipated to participate as part of the implementation team.