The Chairman Senate Committee on Tertiary Institution and Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Senator Binta Masi, yesterday said Nigeria currently spends over $2 billion annually as capital flight on education abroad.
She made this known in Abuja,during the official Commissioning of Federal University of Lafia, FUL, to the Nigeria Research and Education Network,NgREN.
Senator Masi, who frowned on Nigerians travelling to other African countries to get educated, said Nigeria was getting it right on the initiative of the research and education network.
She said as chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund, the NgREN initiative would be further exposed to the members of the National Assembly to fully engage all stakeholders and ensure adequate funding and support for maximum delivery of the NgREN services. Senator Masi added that the National Assembly would continue to support more initiatives on rescuing and reviving the glory of the Nigeria education sector.
Speaking on the benefits of NgREN, the Coordinator of the Programme in NUC, Dr Joshua Attah, said the network helped in cutting cost as its present connection fee was $59 per megg. Attah said: “It helps to avoid unnecessary travels and also help cut cost of capacity building as teaching can be delivered to several people.”