The Federal Government has given all tertiary institutions in Nigeria 30 days to utilise unaccessed and unspent intervention funds or risk forfeiting them.
Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, issued the directive during a strategic meeting with Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts, Bursars and Procurement Officers in Abuja. He said the era of idle allocations in the education sector was over, warning that failure to use approved funds had slowed national development.
“This meeting is not for blame games but to move forward collectively,” Alausa said. “Resources that could have transformed our classrooms, laboratories and libraries have remained idle for years due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. That must change now.”
The Minister ordered institutions to submit reconciled reports of all unutilised funds within 30 days, adding that any unspent money would be redirected to priority projects. “Carrying them over without strong justification will no longer be allowed,” he said.
He also expressed concern over large sums still lying dormant in the Central Bank, noting that the neglect deprives students of better facilities and undermines institutional progress.
To strengthen accountability, Alausa announced plans to launch a public transparency dashboard to track disbursement and utilisation of TETFund allocations. “Every TETFund naira represents public trust,” he said. “We owe it to Nigerians to ensure these resources are spent efficiently and visibly.”
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Abel Enitan, described the situation as “a national emergency requiring urgent and collective action,” urging institutions to “remove administrative bottlenecks and deliver tangible outcomes within defined timelines.”