Reps Committee Assures Adequate Funding For Varsities On 2016 Budget

The House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education has assured all the  Federal Government owned Universities of adequate funding in the 2016 financial year as part of efforts to enable them meet their financial obligations  as well to improve the products of the nation’s
Universities.

The committee headed by Hon. Aminu Suleiman gave the assurance in Abuja at the weekend during the budget defence exercise by vice-chancellors of Federal Universities.
The committee chairman, who lamented the financial crisis facing the institutions, declared that the National Assembly was very much aware of their financial predicaments and would do everything to put an end to this ugly development through adequate budgetary provision in the 2016 budget now before it.
For his part, a member of the committee, Hon. E.J. Agbonayinma, demanded for a special intervention in the case of the University of Benin which he said had added  two additional faculties this year and had its overhead cost reduced from N12.78 billion in 2015 to N11.73billion in the 2016 budget proposal with a shortfall of N829.40 million.
“I am calling on my colleagues to look at the case of the University of Benin dispassionately,in the current academic calendar year,the University has two additional faculties, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the only one in the South-South geo-political zone of the country, and the Faculty of Environmental Sciences with seven departments alone.
“Now, how  will the Institution survives now  that its allocation had been reduced from  from N12.78billion in 2015 to N11.73billion in the 2016 budget proposal now with the National Assembly with a shortfall of N829.40 million,I think we have to look into this critical and dispassionately if we don’t want system failure,” he  said.
The lawmaker enumerated the challenges facing the University to include Gully erosion,Lecture/laboratory Rooms,Furniture,equipment and consumables,hostel accommodation,fire fighting equipment and Trucks, security/surveillance equipment,ICT infrastructure to meet local and international ratings,Academic staff for accreditation(from Graduate Assistant to Professorial levels,Technicians and technologists to derive research).
He stated that if all these challenges were adequately addressed through budgetary provision in the financial year,it would facilitate quality delivery and global ranking of the University and others in similar predicaments.
The committee however assured that it would look into all the presentations by the various Universities and come up with adequate budgetary allocations to the all the  Institutions to enhance quality service delivery but warned the university administrators against the mismanagement of funds being allocated to them in whatever guise.



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