The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has announced tougher measures against beneficiary tertiary institutions that have failed to complete projects funded through its intervention programmes.
As part of the new policy, institutions with abandoned or delayed projects will not be considered for fresh project approvals under the 2027 intervention cycle until outstanding projects are completed.
The decision was reached by the Fund’s Board of Trustees as part of efforts to address persistent project delays, rising construction costs and poor implementation that have reduced the impact of TETFund interventions in higher institutions across the country.
In a statement issued by the Director of Public Affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Aminu Bello Masari, said the practice of approving new projects while old ones remain unfinished would no longer be tolerated.
Masari explained that although many projects were delayed because of the sharp increase in the prices of construction materials such as cement, reinforcement bars and electrical and sanitary fittings, the Board had introduced a special intervention in 2023 to provide additional funding for such projects.
According to him, the initiative helped many institutions complete projects that had previously been abandoned. However, he noted that delays have continued in several schools due to leadership changes, with new administrators abandoning inherited projects in favour of new ones.
He also blamed slow payment processes and administrative bottlenecks within institutions for contributing to the problem, warning that internal politics and bureaucracy would no longer be allowed to hinder projects financed with public funds.
Zoyols News gathered that the Board has directed every beneficiary institution to prepare a detailed list of projects that have remained incomplete for more than six months after their expected completion dates. The institutions are expected to explain the reasons for the delays, outline practical solutions and provide updated cost estimates required to complete the projects.
They have also been instructed to prioritise the affected projects based on their importance and establish stronger supervision systems involving their physical planning and maintenance departments to ensure timely delivery, cost control and quality execution.
Under the new guidelines, institutions with outstanding projects must first use their annual, zonal and high impact intervention allocations to complete those projects before applying for approval of new ones.
The Board further declared that institutions with unresolved delayed projects will not receive approval for new projects during the 2027 intervention cycle.
To enforce the directive, TETFund said monitoring teams made up of Board members and technical officials will carry out nationwide inspections of affected projects between August and September 2026.
The inspection exercise will assess the level of work already completed and review the plans submitted by beneficiary institutions ahead of the Board’s statutory meeting in October 2026, where projects to be captured in the 2027 disbursement guidelines will be considered.
