The federal government through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has kick-started the process of constructing state-of-the-art hostels in 36 tertiary institutions.
This is even as the government indicated its willingness to construct more hostel accommodations once these first sets are completed.
Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono stated this on Wednesday, March 20, when the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), led by its President, Comr. Lucky Emonefe visited the agency.
Reacting to the association’s call for the maintenance of TETFund projects in beneficiary institutions across the country and the construction of the NANS secretariat in Abuja, Echono pointed out that there was increased allocation for maintenance of TETFund infrastructures above five years in the 2024 intervention cycle.
On the request for a NANS secretariat, the agency boss promised to look into it and get the buy-in of the Ministry of Education.
He also disclosed that the intervention agency would work out modalities to incorporate the students’ body for joint monitoring of projects across beneficiary institutions.
Lamenting the increasing challenge of student housing in institutions of higher learning, the Executive Secretary said: “As I speak, this year, we shall be providing hostels for students in 36 tertiary institutions across the country. Because we realise that some of the places where our students live are so deplorable. And only about 15 percent of our students are staying on campus. Many of them are living outside campus, some of them can’t even come back for evening lectures because of the cost and the trouble of walking all the way and coming back. And there is also the security situation in their areas.
“So we have a policy to ensure that as much as possible, we will do the minimum of 50 to 60 per cent of our students to live on campus. And provide those hostels. Those hostels will not be matchboxes and shanties. They will be solid buildings that can attract other students from anywhere in the world to compare with what other people enjoy when they leave Nigeria.”
He congratulated the national leadership on their successful election even as he applauded the body for its constructive engagements on issues.
Echono assured the NANS leadership that Nigerian students would continue to be at the centre of any project in tertiary institutions.
He also urged the students to on-board its digital services platform for tertiary institutions – Tertiary Education Research, Applications, and Services (TERAS).
This, he said, would address critical challenges faced by students, researchers, and institutions in accessing educational resources and research materials.
According to him, other services such as sponsored mobile internet access, EagleScan for plagiarism checking, aggregated journal and research subscription inclusive of EBSCO, Blackboard Learning Management System, digital literacy, and intervention funding are available to both public and private tertiary institutions in the country.
“We will continue to support NANS, and partner with NANS because there is no doubt that in any policy, programme, or project that you want to do in the education sector, students must be at the centre of it. Higher institutions exist because of students,” he stated.
