By Chidimma Uchegbu
An educational organisation, Fides Et Ratio Academy, has described as untrue an investigative report published by an online newspaper which alleged that N2.9 billion contract awarded to it by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) was not executed.
Fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja during a media parley on the firm’s plan to roll out massive skill training programmes in the country, Chief Executive Officer of the Academy, Paul Chukwuma, said the organisation never had a contract with TETFund.
According to Chukwuma, who owns a university in East Africa, Fides Et Ratio Academy only entered into an agreement with TETFund on a skill training programme for directors and deputy directors of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well as students in higher education institutions in the country.
Chukwuma, who expressed surprise over the erroneous report, said the academy’s project was fully executed.
“I don’t have a contract. What I have is service engagement. I don’t do contract with my education interest. In the university, if you want a course you pay for it,” he said.
On the first component of the project with TETFund, which involves training of ICT directors and their deputies, Chukwuma said a total of 502 directors and deputy directors were trained, adding that he did the project at a loss.
“TETFund has something like a consolidated structure where they will negotiate for services, and every institution will benefit from that negotiated service. If this phone is N100, they will now say we will take 500 for 500 institutions and we will pay N3, so that other institutions will key into it and use the functionality, and we refused because it was a ridiculous pricing module.
“We went back and forth because what we had was an MoU which stipulated that this programme would run for like 3 years, and the argument was that, you have not done this, you have some time, and even if you lose in two years, may be the third year you will get something.
“But for this project, I did it at a loss, and I can show evidence, and it’s so painful that the project I did at a loss is being carried in way and manner it’s been done,” he said.
On the students’ component of the project, Chukwuma said it was also underpriced.
” Instead of our normal fee of 20 dollars per module, there are three modules, instead of 20 dollars per module per participant, what TETFund eventually agreed to pay, which they have not even finished paying per participant, is N1535,” he said.
Chukwuma lamented that the report also alleged that Fides Et Ratio Academy has no functional office or website.
“The first point on that publication was that I don’t have an office, that an attempt was made to locate my office, and somehow the report ended that somehow they couldn’t find the office but when I read that I felt somehow because I have been in this office close to 20 years, at least for 15 years, the report say they couldn’t find my office, but you can see I have an office and this is my office…
“The second thing that was raised was that we don’t have a functional website. I will call them to show you the website (sic), we have a very functional website.
” The third issue that was raised was that the training was not done, that we just went around and had meetings; that is another thing I felt was mischief,” he said.
Speaking on the main reason for the media parley, Chukwuma said there is an urgent need for Nigerians to embrace ICT skills instead of relying on mere certificates.
Chukwuma, who was joined by a member of the House of Representatives, Afam Ogene, said he established Fides Academy in 2006 to address the problem of skill gaps in the country, adding that he is also setting up a university in his hometown.
While calling on the Nigerian media to push the agenda of ICT skills development in the country, Chukwuma linked the unemployment problem in the nation to the production of graduates who are unable to add value as a result of lack of skills.
The Fides Et Ratio Academy boss revealed that the organisation will in a few days time roll out a massive programme that will go a long way to bridge the skills gap in the country, even as he expressed its readiness to continue to partner government agencies and other relevant stakeholders to add value to the nation’s education system.
