With the ongoing controversies over funding in Nigeria’s education sector, a review of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) annual report has revealed that a total sum of N3.1 trillion was generated between 2020 and 2024 as education tax.
The education tax is an allowable deduction in,
“computing the assessable profits of companies engaged in petroleum operations (Upstream)”.
“Funds derived from the tax are used for rehabilitation, restoration, nd consolidation of tertiary education in Nigeria by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
The amount in the Fund is distributed between Universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education in the ratio 2:1:1, respectively,”
according to a publication on the Federal Inland Revenue Service website.
According to the breakdown in the document, N257 billion was collected in 2020, N189.5 billion in 2021, N328.7 billion in 2022, N725.7 billion in 2023, while the figure for 2024 stood at N1.673 trillion.
This development comes amid growing controversy over the rot in tertiary institutions across the country.
In the last week of August, staff members of the College of Education (Technical), Lafiagi, in the Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, staged a protest over the deteriorating state of the institution.
They blamed the neglect on the absence of TETFund intervention since 2019.
SaharaReporters, which monitored the demonstration via a live broadcast on NupekoTV, a Kwara-based media platform, observed that the staff members displayed placards and chanted solidarity songs at the entrance of the college.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had previously linked incessant strikes by lecturers to poor infrastructure and inadequate funding of public universities by the Federal Government. In December 2024.
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to extend its corruption prosecutions to the leadership of TETFund.
This followed the filing of charges against contractors allegedly involved in unexecuted projects paid for by TETFund.
Un a petition addressed to ICPC Chairman Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, and signed by HEDA Chairman Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, the anti-corruption organisation commended the Commission for filing charges against some persons and companies.
The charges stemmed from allegations of corruption and money laundering tied to unexecuted contracts.
