The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has said universities, polytechnics and colleges of education with long-abandoned projects would be barred from accessing new projects under the Fund’s 2027 intervention cycle.

The decision, taken by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Fund, is aimed at ending the growing trend of delayed and abandoned intervention projects across public tertiary institutions despite billions of naira committed by the Federal Government through TETFund.

The Chairman of the Board, Aminu Masari announced the tough measures after the Board reviewed the persistent delays in project delivery, describing the development as unacceptable.

Masari explained that although the Board had in 2023 created a special intervention line dedicated to completing distressed projects following complaints over rising costs of construction materials such as cement, reinforcement bars and electrical and sanitary fittings, some institutions have continued to fail in delivering projects within approved timelines.

According to him, the intervention had recorded significant success, with many stalled projects completed after additional support was provided.

He, however, expressed concern that fresh cases of delayed projects were still emerging, attributing the situation largely to changes in the leadership of beneficiary institutions, whose new heads often abandon ongoing projects in favour of initiating new ones.

The BoT Chairman also blamed delays in processing payments to contractors, warning that internal bureaucracy and politics within institutions would no longer be allowed to frustrate projects funded with public resources.

To permanently address the challenge, the Board approved a series of immediate measures that will determine access to future interventions.

Under the new directive, all beneficiary institutions are to compile comprehensive inventories of projects that have exceeded their completion deadlines by more than six months, indicating the causes of delay and proposed solutions.

The institutions are also required to rank such projects according to priority and submit detailed cost estimates needed for their completion.

The Board further directed institutions to strengthen project monitoring by constituting effective supervision teams involving their Physical Planning and Maintenance

Departments to ensure projects are delivered on schedule, within approved costs and according to required quality standards.

In what is considered the toughest sanction yet, the Board resolved that institutions with delayed projects must first utilise their Annual, Zonal and High Impact Intervention allocations to complete outstanding projects before qualifying for fresh ones.

“Accordingly, no new projects will be admitted from the identified beneficiary institutions for the 2027 Intervention Cycle,” the Board declared.

As part of the enforcement strategy, TETFund also announced that monitoring teams comprising members of the Board of Trustees and technical staff of the Fund would embark on nationwide inspections of affected projects between August and September 2026.

The teams are expected to carry out on-the-spot assessments and evaluate proposals submitted by beneficiary institutions for the completion of the delayed projects ahead of the Board’s statutory meeting in October 2026, where projects eligible for inclusion in the 2027 disbursement guidelines will be approved.

Please follow and like us: