The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged the National Assembly to safeguard the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) from being abolished as proposed in the 2024 Nigeria Tax Bill currently under consideration.
The call was contained in a statement issued by the President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke.
He said the Union urges the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, and the Federal House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, to be wary of the potential consequences of abrogating the TETFUND. For the last one-and-a-half decades, it has been the backbone of Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions, supporting infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity building.
He said the union stands against anything that would lead to the denigration or obliteration of TETFund as it observed with keen interest the ongoing debate on the review of the tax system in the country.
He said part of the bill proposed to end funding of the TETFUND by the year 2030 and thereafter cede the responsibilities to the newly established Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND.
Osodeke said the union is alarmed by the aspect of the proposed new tax regime, to wit: that the education tax, called the Development Levy, used to bankroll TETFund’s programmes should be ceded to the newly established NELFUND.
“ASUU notes with serious concern Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024, which specifically states that only 50% of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025 and 2026, while NITDA, NASENI, and NELFUND would share the remaining percentages.
“TETFund will also receive 66.7% in 2027, 2028, and 2029 years of assessment but 0% in the 2030 year of assessment and thereafter.
“The far-reaching consequence of the new tax system is that from 2030, all funds generated from the Development Levy will be passed to NELFUND.
“ASUU finds this development not only worrisome but also inimical to our national development objective because of the potential danger to the survival of TETFund.
“As a result, ASUU is urging the National Assembly, especially the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to do all within their capacity to protect TETFund from being abrogated under the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024,” he said.
According to him, the purported admonishment that TETFund should seek innovative ways of generating its funds is spurious and ill-advised because, as a creation of an act, the institution dies without the fund.
He said the Nigerian government should work towards improving and sustaining the fund as its impact transcends tertiary institutions.
“Annual support given to tertiary institutions by TETFund has substantially reduced industrial crises in many tertiary institutions. Renovation of old facilities, provision of new ones, and opportunities for staff development leading to career advancement have doused labour-related agitations on our campuses.
“TETFund impacts not only tertiary-level education but also secondary down to kindergarten. It directly and/or indirectly supports the production of quality teachers and different categories of support staff in the entire educational system. The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) borrowed from the Nigerian experience, while some other African countries have recently visited to understudy TETFund.
“Nigeria should be improving on the operations and sustainability of the agency, not planning to emasculate or abrogate it,” he said.
He added that through the efforts of the TETFUND, Nigerian universities and their graduates are being positioned for global competitiveness.
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