The Federal Government has ordered all institutions of higher learning in the country to report in 30 days on unutilized Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) allocations.
The directive was given by Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on Thursday in Abuja in a meeting he had with tertiary institutions’ heads, informing them that idle funds would no longer be tolerated as they would be reallocated to priority projects.
Alausa bemoaned the increasing trend of institutions not utilizing their approved TETFund allocations, labeling the trend as a significant bottleneck to educational development.
“Funds which can otherwise be used towards building infrastructure in institutions have been lying idle due to bureaucratic hold-ups,” he said. “Institutions will furnish reconciled statements for all unused funds within 30 days for verification by both parties. All unused funds without valid explanation will be moved to priority interventions.”
He also instructed institutions to ensure that procurement plans strictly conform to approved interventions and requested accelerated procedures of approval in order to avoid unnecessary delays.
To improve efficiency and transparency, the Minister initiated capacity-building programs to improve project management, compliance, and financial reporting. He announced that quarterly reviews would now be conducted to check progress and impose sanctions on institutions that fail to meet utilisation standards.
Apart from this, the Ministry of Education plans to implement a public dashboard for tracking disbursement and utilization of TETFund allocations. Institutions will also be required to publish progress reports on all projects being funded by TETFund.
“TETFund must be the exemplar of professionalism, of enforcing compliance, and doing things in the open,” Alausa stated. “Heads of institutions, bursars, procurement officers, and project coordinators must come together to uphold accountability. Every TETFund naira is public trust.”
The directive comes in the wake of continued warnings by TETFund against billions of unused and unaccessed funds by tertiary institutions. In July 2025, the agency had issued threats of delisting recalcitrant schools and reallocating their allocations to cooperating schools.
TETFund adopts a demand-driven strategy in the sense that schools send projects regarding their individual needs before approval. In 2025, the agency spent ₦1.6 trillion in tertiary institutions nationwide, prioritizing campus security, healthcare, and direct infrastructure interventions.
Alausa clarified that the new accountability framework could only be made possible through convergence between all education stakeholders.
“Success with this project depends on shared responsibility. All parties across the education chain must safeguard resources meant to serve our tertiary sector,” he said.
