Sonny Echono transforms Nigeria's tertiary education funding model
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Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), is restructuring how Nigeria funds and manages its higher education institutions.
Since taking leadership of the agency in March 2022, Echono has shifted the focus from basic construction toward research that creates commercial products and economic solutions. The agency is moving away from a model where academic research remains on library shelves. Echono introduced Research for Impact (R4I) and technology commercialization as core strategies.
To support this, the agency launched innovation hubs and multipurpose laboratories across six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. These spaces allow students and scholars to prototype solutions for national issues in areas like cybersecurity, agriculture, and public health. Echono also implemented stricter oversight and accountability measures for the agency's funding. He tied the disbursement of money to verified performance milestones and strict compliance with public procurement rules.
The agency also began auditing overseas academic sponsorship programs to ensure resources focus on building domestic capacity. To prepare students for a global economy, Echono prioritized digital transformation. The agency funded campus-wide broadband, digital libraries, and e-learning management systems. These efforts aim to bridge the digital divide across federal and state universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education in Nigeria.
