Breaking : Unical VC Appointed As South South Representative In TETFUND Research Fund Screening Committee Inyali Peter

Prof Zana Akpagu, Unical VC 

The Vice Chancellor, VC of University of Calabar,  Calabar (Unical),  Prof. Zana Akpagu has been appointed to represent the South South geopolitical zone in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee (NRFS&MC).

In a letter dated August 3, 2017 and signed by the Executive Secretary of TETFUND,  Dr. Abdullahi Baffa, Akpagu was appointed along five other VCs to represent the six geopolitical zones of the country.

The VC of Kogi State University is to represent North Central zone, Gombe State University VC is representing the North East while the VCs of Unman Danfodio University Sokoto, Abia State University and that of University of Lagos are representing the North West, South East and South West respectively in the committee.

Other members are the Rectors of Kwara, Kano and Imo states polytechnic. Provosts of Federal College of Education Asaba, Aminu Sale and Adeyemi colleges of education are also members of the committee.

The Committee which has Prof Olufemi Bamiro of the University of Ibadan as Chairman will be inaugurated on the 10th of this month in the Boardroom of the fund office in Abuja.

According to the Executive Secretary, Akpagu was appointed in recognition of his outstanding scholarship and sterling academic leadership.

"The appointment is in recognition of your outstanding scholarship and sterling academic leadership. I there hope that you will bring your wealth of experience to bear in the discharge of this important National assignment", Baffa said.

The Committee will be responsible for pre-qualifying applications to ensure they are in compliance with approved templates for accessing NRF grant, categorizing pre-qualified proposals into streams and disciplines for ease of appointing assessors/reviewers as well as recommending pre-qualified and categorized proposals.

Reacting, the VC who thanked the leadership of TETFund for finding him worthy for the critical national assignment said that the appointment shows that there's a renewed confidence in the collective resolve of Unical stakeholders to retire and access the varsity unutilized funds to massively provide needed infrastructure.

According to him "I'm overwhelmed by this outpouring of love, goodwill and encouragement. All of you! Recently we were pariah in TETFUND! Now they know our collective resolve to retire and access our unutilized funds to massively provide needed infrastructure .There is new confidence in us. Now we're partners! They're counting on our example/experience to monitor and guide others! God is in Unical! Together, making Unical greater"!