The Federal Government has issued a 30-day ultimatum to all tertiary institutions across the country to fully utilise their unaccessed and unspent education intervention funds or risk losing them.
Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, gave the directive during a strategic meeting with Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts, Bursars, and Procurement Officers held in Abuja. He warned that the era of idle allocations in the education sector was over, describing the failure to use allocated funds as a major setback to national development.
“This meeting is not for blame games but to move forward collectively,” the Minister said. “Resources that could have transformed our classrooms, laboratories, and libraries have remained idle for years due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. That must change now.”
Dr. Alausa directed all institutions to submit reconciled reports of unutilised funds within the stipulated 30-day period, adding that any unspent funds would be redirected to priority projects. “Carrying them over without strong justification will no longer be allowed,” he warned.
Expressing concern over the large sums of money lying dormant in the Central Bank, the Minister said such negligence denies students access to improved learning facilities and hampers institutional growth.
To strengthen accountability, Dr. Alausa announced plans to introduce a public transparency dashboard to track TETFund disbursement and utilisation. “Every TETFund naira represents public trust,” he said. “We owe it to Nigerians to ensure these resources are spent efficiently and visibly.”
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Abel Enitan described the situation as a national emergency requiring collective action.
“Institutions must remove administrative bottlenecks and deliver tangible outcomes within defined timelines,” he stated.