President Muhammadu Buhari has approved an increase of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund National Research Fund to N7.5 billion for this year from the initial N3 billion.
TETFund Executive Secretary, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, who disclosed this at the 2020 TETFund Board of Trustees Retreat in Abuja, said the approval made the agency the largest holder of research grants in Nigeria.
Bogoro said Buhari also approved the establishment of six medical simulation research and clinical training facilities in six colleges of medicine in each geopolitical zone within the year.
He said the approval provided an opportunity for the TETFund to provide 12 COVID-19 and related infectious disease molecular laboratories, two in each geopolitical zone, “making the Fund the highest single provider of COVID-19 test centres in Nigeria”.
He added: “The BOT also approved that TETFund sponsors some COVID-19 Research proposals to the tune of over N200 million, mainly from universities and NAFDAC, this being one of the reasons TETFund has recently been made the secretariat for the Nigeria Covid-19 Research Consortium R&D.”
