Reaping Gains of Quality Leadership in TETFund
Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
For a federal interventionist agency that had been bogged down by inefficiency and searing mediocrity, the coming of Arc. Sonny Echono as the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) brought good tidings. Things are progressively getting better at the agency.
TETFund had virtually gone off the track of its core mandate. But with the positive leadership style he brought to the agency on assumption of office in March 2022 as the Executive Secretary of the agency. Echono, who took over from Prof Suleiman Bogoro, came with the mindset of a person on a rescue mission, displaying uncanny knowledge of the environment he was stepping into. He has injected fresh and invigorating air, a kind of sal volatile, into the agency. The effect was sudden and impactful, pushing the rather lethargic behemoth into an accelerated motion in service delivery.
Echono came with purposeful leadership, scrapping all the clogs in the wheel, ensuring that TETFUND lives up to expectations of delivering quality service to its primary constituency, the education sector. He may not be an academic and has not made his home within the confines of the ivory tower, but he understands the peculiar issues in Nigeria’s tertiary education and education sector in general.
The Ahmadu Bello University(ABU) trained Architect has a mind well attuned to the art and science of designing and managing the construction of buildings and other structures. And he has applied it to good effect in piloting the affairs of TETFund. In discharging of his duties, his policies and actions are always proportioned to ensure that the nation’s Universities become the best in terms of infrastructure, research and learning. This can only be made possible by putting in place the needed facilities
As he sat on Executive Secretary’s seat, piloting the affairs of TETFund, Echono saw the need to introduce reforms in the agency in order to put it in good stead to play its critical role of bridging funding gap and providing critical infrastructure, among others. Given the state of affairs in the past, the new ES made up his mind that under his watch TETFund would be allowed to become a victim of mismanagement as was the case in the past. He introduced several reforms at the agency to help drive effective service delivery thereby making the agency “work better and deliver on its mandate to the good people of Nigeria”. The ghost of corruption has been banished while service delivery is optimised.
Though the reforms have been yielding positive results, the Executive Secretary acknowledges that they may have caused discomfort to those who want the old way of doing things to continue. However, his message for those who dread and oppose change is that he won’t back out as “we are aware of the role TETFund plays in the provision of infrastructure and critical facilities in our higher institutions, as well as the training of academic and non-academic staff”.
Arc Echono has consistently manifested his abhorrence of the shortcomings of TETFund and has done away with all its past draw backs. He is a stickler for prudence, quality service delivery and due process. Following the increment of Education Tax to three percent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, TETFund now has more money in its cofers. But, being the kind of person he is, Echono did not see the enhanced funding as an opportunity to engage on frivolous and suspicious spending as some chief executives of several agencies of government have done and are still doing. Instead, he saw it as a creation of an opportunity to do more for the betterment of Nigeria’s Universities.
He has assured the nation that, with the increased funding of TETFund, the agency has beeb bolstered to discharge its added responsibilities, including being part of the source of revenue for the Student Loan Scheme. In fact, Echono didn’t regard it as additional burden for the agency, hence as far as he is concerned, there is no cause for alarm. “All the added responsibilities bestowed on us, we can cope,” he said, adding, “We will surely not disappoint in the discharge of our mandate”. To make good his assurances of doing more having been given more, the TETFund ES said that “we are also more prudent and efficient in the management of our resources and are following up on the collection of the revenue that should accrue to us”.
Echono believes in team work and shared responsibilities. He knows that TETFund cannot do it alone in the quest to advance tertiary education in Nigeria. Therefore, he wants other stakeholders to also play their parts in helping the agency live up to its core mandate. The Executive Secretary has already made the head of beneficiary institutions aware of what the agency requires of them to assist in transforming the tertiary institutions to be globally competitive. He expressed his love or rather an obsession for quality job in his address at a retreat organised for members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of TETFund recently in Lagos.
He said: “We have set a high standard for our universities and other higher institutions benefiting from our intervention projects. They must manage the resources given to them well. They must be efficient in their planning, accessing and managing the funds given them. They must be prompt in dealing with contractors. We don’t want any wasting of time that would let our projects be caught up in the web of inflation”.
The ES further stated that the chief executives of beneficiary tertiary institutions “must also up their supervision mechanisms (as) we are also introducing more efficient supervision mechanisms”. He didn’t mince words when outlining the rules by which they must play. According to him, “they should also take advantage of the opportunities we are giving them in the area of research, innovation, entrepreneurship among others”.
Echono also stated that TETFund would not waver in Its efforts in making Nigeria’s institutions of higher learning to attain appreciable financial independence and stop being spoon-fed by government. To achieve this goal, Echono said that the agency has been “encouraging (the higher institutions) to be able to improve on their revenue generation so that they won’t be too dependent regarding funding”.
Aside delivering quality infrastructure for the higher institutions, the TETFund boss is equally concerned with ensuring the durability of its funded projects. He has been advocating for higher institutions to imbibe maintenance culture. Echono sees no reason university management and users of a facility should not “jealously protect it and ensure that any sign(s) of structural dilapidations are addressed promptly”. He insists that by adopting maintenance culture, institutions would be able to preserve the integrity of their infrastructural facilities and make them “serve other generations coming behind”.
The outstanding achievements of Echono so far have not gone unnoticed. In fact, both he and the agency he is running its affairs have become the gold fish that has no hiding place. Accolades and awards have been coming, both local and international. In April 2024 the Executive Secretary was conferred with an Award of Excellence by the National Association of Academic Technologists(NAAT) at its 5th National Delegates Conference in Abuja.
The award was in recognition of Echono’s “exemplary leadership in the education sector, quality assurance and service to humanity”
The National President of NAAT, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma commended the Executive Secretary, saying that the interventions of TETFund under him has resulted in the establishment of modern laboratories and upgrade of existing ones in public higher institutions of learning in the country. He also noted that members of NAAT have become beneficiaries of scholarship awards of the agency.
Barely three months after the NAAT award, more awards started pouring in. On July 1, 2024, the Champion Newspapers honoured Arc Echono with the “Outstanding Public Servant of the Year” award. This was in recognition of the achievements of TETFund in revamping the tertiary education sub-sector through its intervention activities with him in the driving seat.
On July 24, 2024, the good things happening at TETFund echoed in far away United States of America. TETFund emerged winner of the 2024 Anthology Visionary Award for Leadership in transforming education through technology. This particular award was in recognition of TETFund’s efforts to drive the infusion of technology into curriculum and instructional delivery process in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions. It was presented at an event held at the Orlando World Center. U.S, witnessed by a global audience of over 2,000 participants drawn from the academia. The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, who is the architect of the achievements being recorded the agency, was on hand to receive the award on behalf of the agency.
He used the occasion of the global event to showcase TETFund to the world elaborating on its activities. He said that the agency is presently supporting over 280 public tertiary institutions and has laid a strategic plan which will enable all students attain digital literacy before leaving the tertiary education system.
The TETFund boss disclosed at the event that the agency has designed a phased integration plan across educational levels and equipping educators in the country with necessary digital skills, facilitating critical partnerships with global bodies. He said that it has established National Center of Excellence for Development of Digital Literacy and Emerging Skills. The ES also informed his global audience that efforts have been made to domesticate learning management systems, and to better manage student’s information by deploying information technology systems. “In today’s digital world, proficiency in digital literacy is not just beneficial, it is essential for academic success and employability,” he said.
Before the U.S event, Arc Echono had been chosen as the keynote speaker and distinguished honouree at the ninth African Leadership Organisation Summit, organised by the publishers of the African Leadership Magazine(ALM), based in the United Kingdom. He spoke on the sub-theme, ‘Education and entrepreneurial linkages: Africa’s pathway to unleashing its greatness’ during the two-day event between July 17-18, 2024, held at the Hilton London Metropole and House of Lords, respectively.
According to the editorial board of the magazine, the selection of Echono was a “testament to his transformational leadership in improving infrastructure, strategic resource allocation, promoting research and development, and enhancing academic staff training”. They also pointed out his positive impact in “integrating ICT and digital learning, advocating for policy reforms, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in Nigeria’s tertiary education system”.
Echono lived up to his billing at the ALM Africa Summit themed: Africa Unleashed: Navigating Disruptions, Enhancing Opportunities. Specifically, on July 18, 2024, he delivered a stirring speech in which he emphasised the crucial link between education and entrepreneurship as the pathway to Africa’s greatnsss. According to him, “unlocking Africa’s immense potential requires a multi-layer approach”, adding that adopting democratic principles, good governance, and accountability to achieve political stability and peace would spur development across Africa.
He was conferred with Distinguished Honouree award in recognition of his “lasting impactful contribution to education development, not only within Nigeria but also as a model for educational leadership across Africa”. The organisers also lauded the TETFund boss for showing “strong and effective professional character” in his leadership of the agency “in a way that has impacted tremendously on the overall well-being of Universities in Nigeria today”.
Not one to indulge in vain glory and self-indulgence, Arc Echono has remained his humble self amidst all the accolades and awards raining on him. He attributes every achievement to team work among TETFund staff, management as well as the BoT. He doesn’t regard his achievements and the attendant awards as something to gloat about. Rather, he sees them as catalysts to enhance productivity and push him and his team to strive and render sustained efficient service delivery to Nigeria’s tertiary education sub-sector.
Even with the added responsibilities to TETFund, Echono has said that the agency remains equal to the task of carrying out its mandate as spelt out in the enabling law. This is the assurance of a man with a vision of making TETFund an outstanding public service institution focused on upgrading the strategic status of the nation’s Universities. As observed by the publishers of ALM, Echono has remained focused in his “determined efforts in restoring hope, vibrancy and effective funding of our Universities in a way that empowers them to be able to respond to the strategic challenges of University education in Nigeria”.
