PFN President Seeks Inclusion of Private Varsities As Beneficiaries of TETFUND, NELFUND

PFN President Seeks Inclusion of Private Varsities As Beneficiaries of TETFUND, NELFUND Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan The National President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Archbishop Francis Wale Oke, on Wednesday, called on the Federal Government to include private universities as beneficiaries of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and their students in Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND). This is just as he said the Precious Cornerstone University (PCU), Ibadan, is committed to producing skilful, moral graduates that are critical thinkers that will be solutions to societal problems. Archbishop Oke, who is the Chancellor of PCU, while speaking with journalists at the fifth convocation ceremony of the university, lamented that the exclusion of private universities as well as their students from the two agencies of the Federal Government amounts to depriving the students their rights as citizens of Nigeria and the institutions of what they should also enjoy. According to the President of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries, the Federal Government has no reason to exclude private universities and their students from the interventions as they also contribute their quota to the growth of the country, stating that private institutions needed the intervention to develop their infrastructures while the students are also bonafide citizens of Nigeria. He said: “The TETFUND should not be meant for public institutions alone but for private universities also. Excluding them from the fund is a discrimination, it is bad, as the private universities are equally training the future leaders of our country. The time to include the private universities in TETFUND should be now as the fund is generated mostly from taxes paid by the private sector such as banks and oil companies.” Archbishop Oke, who maintained that PCU is producing graduates that will be professionally sound and self-independent and be employers of labour and not a burden to the labour market, disclosed that the National Universities Commission (NUC) has granted approval for the institution to commence admissions into seven additional undergraduate programmes. “These new programmes are Nursing Science, Public Health, Medical Laboratory Science and Community Health Science under the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences and Christian Religious Studies, Music and Performing Arts under the Faculty of Arts,” he said. He described the approvals as a major milestone in PCU’s academic expansion and contributions to national manpower development, noting that the institution will continue to foster a culture of innovation, encouraging students to become job creators through research-driven learning and entrepreneurial development. Archbishop Oke explained that PCU insists on getting the best lecturers to teach the students and hence does not play with academic excellence, stating that the institution encourages students to register a company where they are going to practise their own businesses while they are still in the university and likewise register them for professional courses to enable them to become gurus in their chosen career. He added that a total of 148 students graduated in the epoch set of 2026 comprising 25 first class, 69 second class upper, 44 second class lower and 10 third class, bringing the university’s cumulative graduate population to 604. According to him, “Here in PCU we produce skilful, talented, professional graduates that will be employers of labour and job creators and not people that will just carry a certificate looking for a job. Students from all over the country are thus welcome into the institution.”