From Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, has announced that 226 universities and colleges of education are to benefit from the N500 billion education tax target set for 2021.
Imam disclosed this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at TETFund/FIRS 2020 Joint Interactive Forum on the theme, “New thrust in sustaining the EDT collection during COVID-19 pandemic for effective service delivery of the mandate of the fund.”
He said that the Fund was committed to having a greater impact, adding that the BOT is determined to prove that public agencies must work to get results.
‘The synergy between the FIRS and TETFund is vital to the transformation that is evident in our public tertiary institutions nationwide. This was achieved as a result of joint delivery of complementary services by providing amiable and lasting solutions to our beneficiaries. In addition, the successful strategic partnership over the years can be attributed to the strong, relentless commitment and cooperation by the leadership of both organisations and our zeal to improve Nigerian education nationwide,’ he said.
Imam said that the TETFund and FIRS teams would visit project sites in tertiary institutions to see if the funds were judiciously utilised.
Also speaking at the event, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Executive Chairman Mohammed Nami, who was represented by the FIRS Coordinator for Oyo, Ogun and Osun, Nuredi Fasola, said the Service put its overall 2020 performance from January to October at N4.122 trillion, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic challenges, Financial Act 2019 incentives and palliative concessions.
He added that the Service received the sum of N251 billion as at October for the TETFund.
He said its non-oil revenue collection performance in the same period stood at N2.8 trillion, with oil revenue at N1.3 trillion.
FIRS raked in N214 billion for the Fund in 2019, he reported.
In his speech, TETFund Executive Secretary Prof Suleiman Bogoro, represented by the Director of Finance, Idris Seidu, said that the Fund is taking practical steps to put the country on a revolutionary path to a knowledge-based economy.
He said that TETFund was committed to impact positively on Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, comprising of 226 federal and state universities, federal and state polytechnic and colleges of education.