VC to FG: Allow private varsities benefit from TETFund… stop discriminating

Alewo Johnson-Akubo, the vice-chancellor (VC) of Salem University Lokoja, has called on the federal government to allow private universities to benefit from TETFund.

TETFund, established in 2011, disburses, manages, and monitors education tax for government-owned tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The scheme provides supplementary support to all levels of public tertiary institutions.

Johnson-Akubo spoke on Thursday with NAN in Lokoja.

He said making TETFund accessible to private varsities is necessary to turn around the nation’s education system.

The VC said public universities have access to budgetary allocations, TETfund, other grants, and all sorts of subventions but the private universities are left to fend for themselves.

He said there is no reason the private universities should not be integrated into TETFund.

“It’s bewailing why private universities are not part of the TETfund funding as the public universities, considering the important roles we are playing in the education system,” the VC said.

“No doubt, TETfund is ordinarily the proceeds from what should be seen as a commonwealth, since we are all producing graduates that will serve the entity of the nation.

“I think it’s high time that such discrimination should stop. This is because nobody will tell any graduate not to work in a particular office because he/she is coming from a private university.

“Therefore, I am calling on the government to see to it that private universities become beneficiaries of TETfund like public universities because we are all working towards the same purpose.”

The main financial inflow available to TETFund is the two percent education tax paid from the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria.

The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) assesses and collects the tax.

These monies are then disbursed for the general improvement of education in federal and state tertiary education.