The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has advocated a full retention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund) financing in the federal government’s tax reform bill, declaring that “it’s the backbone of the nation’s tertiary institutions.”
The coordinator of ASUU Benin Zone, Prof. Monday Lewis Igbafeh, made the call in a chat with journalists in Benin City Friday.
Igbafeh recalled how ASUU conceptualised TETFund and brought it to its concrete fruition and relevance in the transformation of tertiary institutions in the country.
According to him, “Since its formation, TETFund has indisputably remained the cornerstone of rapid transformation of tertiary institutions in terms of manpower, infrastructure and academic developments.”
He, however, expressed reservations over Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024, which, according to him, indicated that “only 50% of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025, while NITDA, NISENI and NELFUND would share the remaining percentages.”
“The consequence of this Section is that Tetfund will receive 66 percent in 2027, 2028 and 2029 years of assessment. And from 2030, it will be 0 percent,” he said further.