The Nigerian government has announced that third-party research grants allocated to federal universities and research institutes will be exempted from Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The directive was communicated through a letter signed by the Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki.
According to the directive, universities and research institutes are now permitted to maintain commercial bank accounts specifically for these grants, allowing them to draw funds directly from these accounts to support their research activities.
The letter reads: “The National Universities Commission,NUC, is in receipt of the directive from the Honourable Minister of Education, Ref. DE/HE/37/VII/324 and dated 4th September 2024, forwarding the correspondence from the Principal Secretary to the President, State House, also vide PRES/87/MF/71/198/MBEP/15 and dated 23rd July 2024, on the above subject.
“The letter communicates Mr. President’s directive to the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy to exclude third-party research grant funds of Federal Universities and Research Institutes from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), and to grant Universities and Research Institutes autonomy in operating their endowment fund accounts in Commercial banks. Please see attached.
“Consequently, I am to convey Mr. President’s approval on the above subject to Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities for further necessary action.
“I am to add that joining instructions which appertain to operational guidelines will be issued under separate cover.”
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