News
TETFund Trains Over 17,000 Tertiary Institutions’ Academic Staff on ICT in 2 Years
Some 17,000 academic staff from various tertiary institutions in the country have been trained in Information and Communication Technology, ICT, in the last two years, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has said.
Arc. Sonny Echono, Executive Secretary of TETFund, made this known at Asset Declaration, Security and Fraud Detection Awareness Workshop /TETFund SERVICOM Week, in Abuja.
Echono, who expressed delight at the level of impact TETFund has brought to bear in public higher education institutions in the country, said the Fund has also trained 37,000 academic staff and sponsored 98,000 others to attend workshops and conferences.
He said:”Since the signing of the TETFund Act of 2011 into law by Mr President the impact of the Fund has been felt by all our stakeholders as is evident through the magnitude of projects and programs for both Infrastructure and human capacity development of all academic staff of the public tertiary Institutions.
“Is something we are very proud of. If you go to our campuses across the country in our beneficiary tertiary institutions, the TETFund logo has become so synonymous with many of the physical structures that we have. If you notice, even when unions are agitating they never mention TETFund as part of their problem because we have been able to train 37,000 of them .
” 98,000 academic and non academic staff of our tertiary institutions have been sponsored to attend conferences and workshops all over the globe in addition to the 37, 000 that have acquired masters and PhDs through the intervention of TETFund.”
The TETFund boss, who was conferred Officer of the Order of the Niger,OON,by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, congratulated the immediate past Chairman of TETFund’s Board of Trustees, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam and former Executive Secretary, Professor Suleiman Bogoro for bagging OFR and OON respectively, saying the awards were well deserved.
“May I use this opportunity to congratulate the immediate past chairman of our Board and the immediate past executive Secretary for yesterday’s national award, it was a great day for TETFund with 3 nominees or awardees,” Echono said.
On the recent move by TETFund to leverage more on ICT to ensure seamless delivery of its mandate, Echono said the Fund would soon ensure major processes in some areas of interventions are strictly done through online.
“Nearly 17, 000 academic staff, this is outside the figure I gave earlier, in the last two years have been trained on ICT, so that they can deliver and carry out their functions well.
“This year we have approved that all the interventions that have to do with ICT will have be done online, we don’t want them to send papers to us, we don’t even what face to face contact,” Echono said, adding that such step will likely be extended to the library and academic training intervention lines.
Speaking further, Echono called on TETFund staff to ensure what was learnt at the workshop was put into use appropriately especially in the area of service delivery, adding that the Agency staff that have distinguished themselves in service delivery will be honoured by end of the year.
On his part, the National Coordinator of Servicom, Mrs Nnena Akajemeli, commended Echono, TETFund’s Head of Servicom Unit Ebere Nwobu, among others, for ensuring successful celebration of the Customers Service Week.
While saying this year’s Customer Service Week has its theme as ‘Celebrate Service’, Akajemeli expressed satisfaction with the open communication between TETFund and its stakeholders, saying it is the right step in the right direction.
In a remark, the Head, TETFund’s SERVICOM Unit, Mrs Ebere Nwobu, who said the Agency would continue to give the desired attention to all its stakeholders, commended Echono for always providing the necessary support to ensure better service delivery
“In a special way, I would like to thank my Boss, our ever-listening Executive Secretary, as I always call him “The Service Provider in Chief”, for giving us the necessary support and encouragement to organize this 2022 Customer Service Week.
” The ES is always willing and available to listen to complaints and suggestions from the SERVICOM Unit. We cannot thank you enough sir,” she said.
Nigeria has launched an emergency response centre after recording 190 deaths from Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic illness, according to Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC).
The disease, mainly transmitted to humans via contact with food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or excrement, has infected 1,154 people in six Nigerian states.
Jide Idris, head, Nigerian Center for Disease Control, said the agency’s risk assessment has categorized it as high, prompting the activation of the emergency Operations Centre to manage the outbreak.
“While the disease occurs throughout the year, peak transmission typically happens between October and May, coinciding with the dry season when human exposure to rodents increases,” he said at a press briefing in Abuja.
The centre will ensure seamless coordination of the control and management of the outbreak.
Symptoms of the virus – which can also be passed between people through bodily fluids of those infected – include fever, headaches and, in the most severe cases, death.
The World Health Organization classifies Lassa fever as a priority disease due to its epidemic potential and lack of approved vaccines.
Federal government has proposed to spend N1.5bn for internet services for passengers at five international airports in the country.
The project, “Provision/Upgrade of WiFi Services for Passengers in Five International Airports and some Domestic Airports” was listed as a new project in the 2025 appropriation.
In some parts of the world, access to the internet via Wi-Fi at airports is regarded to be a basic human right.
Such amenities are lacking in Nigeria.
But the 2025 budget presented to the National Assembly last week by President Bola Tinubu saw the sum of N105.953,496,365 being allocated to the Ministry of Aviation.
Apart from internet access at the airports, some other capital allocations were reinstated for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
In previous budgets, three agencies of the ministry including the apex regulatory agency, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and NAMA were exempted from the annual budgetary allocation.
In addition, the federal government deducts 50 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which is against the standard and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which recommends that the funds generated by the agencies should be reinvested into improving infrastructure and boosting aviation safety.
Fidelis Egueke, former bank manager, , has been convicted and sentenced to six months in prison by an Asaba, Delta State Chief Magistrate’s Court for defrauding a victim of $46,900.
Chief Magistrate Callistus Isioma Moeteke found Egueke guilty of a single charge brought against him by the police under case number CMA/295c/2024.
Raphael Eze, prosecutor, of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Asaba, said Egueke, a former Asaba branch manager of a tier-one bank, fraudulently obtained $46,900 by using two Certificates of Occupancy (CofOs) as collateral.
One of the land titles, however, was not his, and the other was fake.
After receiving the money, Egueke used it for personal expenses and failed to repay the victim as promised.
The prosecution argued that Egueke’s actions violated Section 419 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C21, Vol.1 Laws of Delta State, Nigeria, 2006.
Despite denying the offence, Egueke failed to present evidence of repayment during the trial.
Chief Magistrate Moeteke determined that the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Egueke was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment.
However, the court also gave him the option to pay a fine of N350,000 in lieu of serving the prison term.
The court ordered Egueke to pay N30 million in restitution to the victim within six months of his conviction.
The charge against Egueke stated that, in 2016, he fraudulently obtained a credit facility worth $46,900 (approximately N60 million) from Chief Jude Ndudi by presenting false documents, including land titles that did not belong to him, in violation of Section 419 of the Criminal Code Law.
Egueke is also facing trial before a Lagos Federal High Court on charges related to a separate fraud case involving N179.498 million.
He is being prosecuted by the Force Criminal Investigation Department (ForceCID), Annex Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos.
NCDC Activates Emergency Response as Lassa Fever Kills 190
CBN Disqualifies 41.65m Shares in Access Holdings Rights Issue
2025 Budget: FG Earmarks N1.5Bn for Airports’ Internet, Others
World Bank Raises Nigeria’s NIN Target to 180m
MTN Nigeria Renews Spectrum Lease Agreement with NTEL
UBA Group Sets Foot in France with Full Banking Services
FG Begins N50 Electronic Levy Deductions from Moniepoint, Other Digital Banks
Report Reveals Most Organisations Fear AI-driven Cyberattacks but Lack Key Defences
Nigeria Risks Missing out on $1.2 Trillion AI Opportunity- NigComSat
Firm Sues NIMC, Others On Digital Rights Breach Allegations
Telecom3 days agoAirtel Africa to Return $100m to Shareholders via Share Buyback
Broadcasting2 days agoSpotify’s ‘Detty December’ Hub and Spotify’s ‘Songs of December’ now live
Broadcasting2 days agoQNET Collaborates with Lagos Food Bank to Aid Vulnerable Children
News3 days agoEgueke, Former Bank Manager Jailed for $46,900 Fraud
Telecom3 days agoFG Gives Banks, Telcos Six-Month Deadline to Resolve N250Bn USSD Debt
Broadcasting2 days agoNERC Discloses $5.7 Million Debt Owed by International Customers for Q3 2024 Electricity Supply
Telecom3 days agoNCC Launches Initiative to Combat Fraud, Spam Messaging
Broadcasting3 days agoAfrica Magic Announces Call for Entries for 11th AMVCA