Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri and Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri have been selected alongside 10 other tertiary institutions in Nigeria to benefit from The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) establishment of N1 billion Centres of Excellence (COEs) each.
TETFund Executive Secretary, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, in a statement released in Abuja, on Thursday, said that two institutions, a Polytechnics and a College of Education, were selected in each geopolitical zone and would be funded for a period of five years.
The 12 institutions include Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa; Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau State; Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi; Federal College Education, Yola; Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna; Federal College of Education, Zaria;
Others are Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Imo State; Alvan Ikoku Federal of Education, Owerri, Imo State; Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State; Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers State; Yaba College of Technology, Lagos; and Adeyemi College Education, Ondo.
Prof. Bogoro, thus, charged the benefiting institutions to hit the ground running and ensure that they strengthen sustainability beyond the year 2026.
"You have been painstakingly selected to host the second batch of TETFund Centres of Excellence. While it is appropriate to feel justifiably proud for being deemed worthy of selection from among dozens of eligible candidate institutions, I hasten to draw your attention to the huge burden of expectation that comes with your choice as the pioneer beneficiary institutions of this initiative with immense national significance," he said.
The TETFund boss said that each selected institution is expected to implement its own approved programmes, with the objective to address a specific national development challenge through the preparation of professionals, applied research and associated outreach activities to partners, especially community services.
The six selected Polytechnics will focus on technical skills development and entrepreneurship education.
He said one of the basic strategic aims for the establishment of Centres of Excellence is to support strategic and application-oriented research and expertise with potential industrial applications.
"This means supporting national and globally competitive research and development in strategic and applied sciences including medicine and engineering with the aim of generating innovations.
"This is usually done with a focus on government-defined priority areas, needed for technical development and industrial"
