The Buhari administration has approved the Tertiary Trust Fund (TETFund), 2016 intervention budget of N213.4 billion, the highest ever to be distributed to the tertiary schools.

Dr Abdullahi Baffa, the Executive Secretary, TETFund, disclosed this at a news briefing in Abuja on Monday.

Giving a breakdown of the budget, he said each of the 40 federal universities and 34 state universities will receive the sum of N1.94 billion.

Baffa added that each of the 54 public polytechnics would get N691 million while each of the 55 colleges of education will receive N679 million

He said this was the biggest ever annual disbursement given‎ any beneficiary institution since the establishment of TETFund.

In 2010 for example each university was given N303 million, polytechnics were given N216 million and colleges of education were given N157 million. In 2012 universities got N595 million, polytechnics N337 million and colleges of education N319 million.

In 2015 universities were gi‎ven N337 million. Polytechnics were given N 250 million and colleges of education N227 million.

“What was given this year is more than three times what was allocated in the previous year,” he said.

The executive secretary said that in a bid to ensure that institutions were manned by scholars that have terminal degrees the fund had placed a high premium for them to have scholarships to study for higher degrees.

‎”That is why academic staff training and development is allocated N300 million for universities and N200 million each for polytechnics and colleges of education respectively.

Baffa said the fund will ensure it monitored the allocation disbursed to each institution to ensure the fund was judiciously utilised. (NAN)