NAN-H-155
IGR
By Cecilia Ijuo
Abuja, Feb. 16, 2017 (NAN) The Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND, Sen. Barau Jibrin on Thursday urged tertiary institutions to develop mechanisms to boost their internally generated revenue.
Jibrin made the call while addressing various tertiary institutions that appeared before the committee for defence of their respective 2017 Budgets.
He said that it was important for the institutions to widen their revenue generation bases to augment federal allocations, adding that government alone could not adequately fund education in the country.
He charged the institutions to take advantage of their environment and opportunities such as endowment fund and intellectual property works to generate more income.
Jibrin particularly decried the poor revenue generation by Colleges of Education, describing it as abysmal.
He said that it would be difficult for the colleges to operate in future if the trend continued.
“I want to challenge all of you here, especially Colleges of Education, to look inwards to generate funds to augment government allocations.
“In this manner, it will enhance academic activities.
“We cannot continue to see colleges of education or tertiary institutions performing poorly in their internally generated revenues,’’ he said.
Earlier, Mr Bappa Muhammadu, Executive Secretary of National Commission for Colleges of Education, had said that poor funding was hampering the activities of the institutions.
He said that the activities of the commission had been on the increase, but that the current budgetary provision to it was grossly inadequate. (NAN)
CJM/NNL/LAB/OPI
Edited by Lydia Beshel and Olisa Ifeajika