The Tertiary Education Trust Fund has taken a firm stand against tertiary institutions that fail to complete intervention projects. Institutions with delayed or abandoned projects will not receive new project approvals under the 2027 intervention cycle.

The decision was taken by the Board of Trustees to end years of project delays, cost overruns, and poor implementation. Board Chairman Aminu Bello Masari said the era of allowing schools to start new projects while older ones remain unfinished is over.

Masari noted that some projects were initially delayed by rising costs of building materials. A special intervention introduced in 2023 helped complete many of them, but delays have continued in several institutions. He blamed the problem largely on lack of continuity by successive school heads and slow payment processes.

Under the new rules, every beneficiary institution must list all projects delayed for more than six months, explain the reasons, and propose solutions. They must also rank the projects by priority and set up stronger supervision systems to ensure timely and quality delivery.

Monitoring teams will inspect the affected projects between August and September 2026. Institutions with outstanding delayed projects will be required to use their allocations to complete them before any new projects can be approved.

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