Abstract:
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) was established in 2011 to provide
intervention projects towards meeting the physical and human development needs of
public higher education institutions in Nigeria and to ameliorate financial crises in the
system. However, the timeliness of disbursements, amounts disbursed by TETFund
from the allocated funds to universities and the ways projects were implemented have
been of great concern to stakeholders. Previous studies concentrated more on quality
and relevance of Tertiary Education Trust Fund intervention than on the
implementation of intervention projects in the South-west, Nigeria. This study,
therefore, was designed to investigate the implementation of TETFund intervention
projects from 2011 to 2015, being five years, after the transition from Education Trust
Fund. This is with a view to ascertaining compliance with allocation guidelines on the
implementation.
Public Expenditure, Public and Social Accountability theories provided the
framework, while the survey design of the ex-post facto type was adopted. Six federal
and seven state public universities in the South-west, Nigeria as well as TETFund
projects for the periods were enumerated. Primary and secondary data were sourced
and interrogated for information. Other TETFund data inventory containing Allocated
Fund-AF (exclusive of research grants). Fund Accessed-FA, Disbursed Fund-DF and
Timeliness for Fund Disbursed-TFD were used. Semi- structured interviews were
held with 13 TETFund officers, while key informant interviews were held with 26
Principal Officers, two in each university. Data were analysed using descriptive
statistics and content analysis.
The AF to each university from 2011-2015 was N2,888,000,000.00. The highest FA
by universities was N2,476,000,000.00 and lowest amount was N686,043,740.00.The
highest DF was N2,436,000,000.00,and the lowest amount was N708,097,646.00.
Only 46.3% of AF (an equivalent of 84.4% of FA) was disbursed to universities
within the period. Physical infrastructure received highest allocation ranging from
N175m to N 552m annually while research fund was allocated only N160m for the
five years. Academic staff training and development, and Conference attendance top
the list of project executed by TETFund in the public universities. Book development
and programme upgrade were least executed across the universities. Disbursement of
funds was slow due to bureaucracies which led to un-accessed fund. Timeliness of
fund disbursement (3.36±1.72) years was poor, against a threshold of one year.
TETFund complied with the guideline on horizontal allocation, but was inconsistent
on vertical allocation. Protracted delay before DF was released to universities caused
rollover and abandonment of TETFund projects. Inability of universities to access
fund was the major factor that hindered the successful implementation of TETFund
projects.
The inconsistency of TETFund on compliance with guidelines, delays in fund
disbursement and failure of universities to submit financial returns limited the
effective implementation of TETFund intervention projects in public universities in
the South- west Nigeria within the period of 2011 to 2015.
