First Idahosa Memorial Lecture Holds As Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria President seeks Funds For Private Varsities

Bishop (Dr.) Francis Wale Oke, National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and Chan­cellor, Precious Cornerstone University, has called for a review of the Tertiary Ed­ucation Trust Fund (Estab­lishment, etc.) Act of 2011, so that privately owned tertiary institutions in Ni­geria can benefit alongside their government-owned counterparts from the Ter­tiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).

Oke made the plea while delivering the inaugural Archbishop Benson Ida­hosa Memorial Lecture at the Legacy Campus of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City.

On the role of faith-based universities in national trans­formation, Oke pointed out those faith-based universities had made significant contri­butions, not only in the area of human resource develop­ment, but also in other aspects of national development.

Faith-based universities had become major drivers of economic advancement in Nigeria, with products of these institutions playing outstanding roles in the dif­ferent sectors, he said.

He cited, in particular, the contribution being made by graduates of faith-based universities in the area of financial technology solu­tions and entrepreneurship development in the country.

Evidence of the quality of learning and all-round development available at these institutions, he said, could be found in the success­es attained by some of the graduates of faith-based uni­versities such as Paystack founders, Sola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, Sycamore Found­ers – Babatunde Akin-Moses and Onyinye Okonji, as well as Founders of Piggyvest and Thrive, among others.

Oke said that the huge and sacrificial investment in human and material re­sources by the proprietors of these institutions, which had created a more condu­cive teaching and learning environment in these pri­vate universities, as well as the stable and predictable academic calendar they run, were partly responsible for the level of success being recorded there.

He also stressed that greater progress could only be made in the development of tertiary education with support as offered by TET­FUND extended to private­ly-owned tertiary institu­tions.