FG To Release Sharing Formula To Slash Funds For State Varsities
The Federal Government will release the sharing formula for the N220bn 2014 funding for universities by month end and also slash funding of state varsities.
Our correspondent gathered on Friday in Abuja that the Implementation Monitoring Committee had already worked out a theory to exclude some state universities from the list of the benefiting institutions.
The Federal Government had promised to inject N220bn annually into the universities for the next five years based on the NEEDS Assessment Report.
This was contained in the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities in December to end the almost six months strike by the public university lecturers.
The money is meant for the renewal of infrastructure, capacity building for lecturers and learning resources.
On the day the union announced the suspension of the strike, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim commissioned the Implementation Monitoring Committee.
Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, further subdivided the committee into two subcommittees of allocation and logistics.
The IMC, it was learnt, had raised concerns that some states had two state universities and expected the Federal Government to fund them for their political gains.
A top member of the committee, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence on Friday said, “The committee is working out the sharing formula between Federal and state universities.”
Justifying why the committee will recommend unparalleled sharing formula for federal and the state-owned universities, he said, “This money is coming out of Federal Government’s share of the federation account which does not include the state.
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“Based on the NEEDS Assessment Report, there are 27 federal universities as against 34 state universities. Some states have two universities.
“If you have two state universities, we will take one. We cannot fund the two simultaneously. The state governors must know that the Federal Government cannot run their universities. The Federal Government is not supposed to run the state universities.
“The bulk of the money will go the federal universities and the sharing formula will be worked out based on the NEEDS Assessment Report on universities.
Another source told SUNDAY PUNCH that the committee, which would be in place for the duration of the intervention had already identified the need to establish a secretariat; work out the template for monitoring and disbursement of funds for contracts. Source: Punch
