The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has issued a stern warning to beneficiary institutions across Nigeria, stating that those failing to meet performance benchmarks or mismanaging allocated funds risk being delisted from its support programmes.

This warning was delivered by TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, during a one-day strategic engagement with heads of institutions, bursars, and heads of procurement from beneficiary institutions held on Monday in Abuja.

"Let me be clear, institutions that consistently fail to access, utilize or retire funds appropriately, or that fall short of enrollment and academic performance thresholds, risk being delisted as TETFund beneficiary institutions," Echono stated.

The Executive Secretary emphasized that the policy was not punitive in nature but rather designed to safeguard the credibility and impact of TETFund interventions. He further assured that the Fund would direct its resources towards institutions committed to high standards of governance, transparency, and accountability.

According to Echono, the strategic engagement aims to address recurring challenges in Nigeria's tertiary education sector, improve project execution, and enhance the overall quality of education in the country.

This development comes at a critical time for Nigeria's higher education system, which continues to face significant funding and quality assurance challenges. TETFund, established to improve the quality of education in tertiary institutions, appears to be taking stronger measures to ensure that its interventions achieve their intended impact.

The Fund's new stance signals a shift towards performance-based funding in Nigeria's tertiary education sector, potentially raising standards across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education that benefit from TETFund support.