TETFund rakes in N1.7tr from company profit tax
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Education tax on business profit generated N1.702 trillion revenue for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) between 2011 and 2019, the Fund has disclosed in a report.
The federal government established TETFund in 1993 to upgrade infrastructure decay and falling standard in education which began in the 1980s and led to agitation for reform.
The main source of funding TETFund is a 2 per cent education tax on the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria.
“As of 2019, a total of 223 public tertiary institutions benefited from TETFund intervention; universities – 87; polytechnics – 65 and colleges of education –71,” TETFund disclosed, per The PUNCH.
TETFund disclosed its tax revenue in the nine years are as follows:
- 2011 – N128.5 billion
- 2012 – N188.37 billion
- 2013 – N279.17 billion
- 2014 – N 189.61 billion
- 2015 – N207.43 billion
- 2016 – N130.12 billion
- 2017 – N154.96 billion
- 2018 – N203.28 billion
- 2019 – N221.30 billion
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TETFund limited in scope
Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics National President Anderson Ezeibe commended TETFund but insisted it is not designed to be the main source of funding for tertiary schools, according to reporting by The PUNCH.
His words: “The amount stated in the report covered a period of nine years and is therefore expected to have been deployed to satisfy key intervention areas like infrastructure, academic staff development, conference attendance etc.
“It is also expected to have been deployed to service critical committees like National Research Fund etc as well as administrative issues.
“In all, it is difficult not to commend TETFund thus far as the agency has remained the most significant source of infrastructural development and academic staff development in tertiary institutions in the country.
“State governments and even the federal government have not, and are not, doing enough in terms of their fiscal responsibilities to these institutions.
“State-owned institutions are also beneficiaries of TETFund intervention grants. It is expected that state governments should be able to live up to their responsibilities to these institutions as proprietors and not abandon their institutions.”
States should augment TETFund grants
Gbolahan Bolarin, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Chairman at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, urged states to augment TETFund grants.
“The practice of kickbacks and what have you is zapping so much of the money. That is the reason the quality of projects under TETFund is nothing when compared to NEEDS assessment projects,” he said.
“Regarding state universities, it would be better if states can come up with additional streams of funds to support what they might be getting from TETFund. Anyway, it is all about political will to do what is right by the people.”