Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda has called on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, to help tackle the challenges of insecurity affecting tertiary institutions in the state.
The governor made the call on Monday when he led a delegation on a working visit to TETFund in Abuja.
While highlighting the various challenges affecting tertiary institutions in the state, Radda lamented the increased number of students who have been kidnapped and sought urgent intervention from the federal government.
“The states are struggling, the country is struggling in terms of economic hardship, depreciation of the naira, high foodstuff, effect on removal of Subsidy.
“The northern parts are struggling with insecurity. The resources we receive will not be adequate to address the challenges in the state so TETFund is a place we can come to for support.
“We are having a threat of insecurity and a lot of students have been kidnapped, so we need a lot of security in the institutions to make students learn in a conducive environment,” he said.
The Governor explained that the interventions would provide for the needed infrastructure for the safety of the students adding that the state is in the process of converting its ICT institution to a university of technology.
In response to the Governor’s request, the Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono explained that insecurity was a national issue affecting all sectors and not only education but promised that the necessary infrastructure would be put in place to address them.
Echono said the fund had prioritised all the trouble spots with measures in place to address the issues.
“We had already prioritised Katsina in our security intervention because President Bola Tinubu is determined that in times of crisis, education must not stop.
“We have prioritised all the trouble spots with a multiplicity of measures. We are ensuring there is power in all our institutions, putting in place communication gadgets and the rest.
“All of these are part of the security infrastructure that is being implemented,” he said.
Echono added that the fund has commenced its intervention line for the year, saying beneficiary institutions across the country have benefitted between N1.1 billion and N1.9 billion in its intervention line.
He advised the state’s Commissioner of Education to liaise with the fund in order to enlist the institutions to benefit from its interventions.
