President Muhammadu Buhari has approved N208 billion for the upgrading of facilities in the federal universities.
Announcing this at the 23rd convocation of the University of Abuja on Saturday, Buhari said Nigeria could overcome its challenges by developing its human capital.
This amount is against N1.1 trillion demanded by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as revitalisation fund for the universities.
Represented by Sonny Echono, permanent secretary of the education ministry, he said his administration would continue to address the concerns of the tertiary institutions.
“The present administration will continue to improve on the infrastructural facilities in the universities, promote teacher development and curriculum review,” Buhari said.
“It is in furtherance of this that I recently approved the disbursement of N208bn to public tertiary institutions under the 2019 intervention of the TETFUND.
“The ability of Nigeria with its huge population to overcome its present challenges of development no longer depends on petroleum resources but on the ability of the country to develop its human capital.
“The government will continue to look into the issues raised by the universities.”
The president added that the government would “monitor the universities closely.”
