The House of Representatives has raised concerns about the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) over the slow process of disbursing funds to tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
During an oversight function in Abuja on Thursday, May 30, 2024, Miriam Onuoha, the Chairperson of the House Committee on TETFund, highlighted the issue, emphasizing the committee’s dissatisfaction with the delays in fund access.
Onuoha stated, “The committee frowns at a situation where funds meant for tertiary institutions are not accessed by those they are meant for.”
She urged state governors to ensure that heads of institutions comply with TETFund regulations to facilitate smoother access to the allocated funds, stressing that the oversight was aimed at evaluating the agency’s performance concerning the 2022–2023 budget and ensuring that funds were utilized effectively.
“In line with the function of the committee, we must ensure that allocations made to TETFund are used judiciously,” she added.
TETFund Executive Secretary Sonny Echono expressed appreciation for Onuoha’s efforts in improving the collection of education tax, noting an increase from 2.5 percent to 3 percent due to more efficient collection methods. Echono provided data on the fluctuations in tax collection, with N257 billion collected in 2020, a drop to N185.5 billion in 2021, and subsequent increases to N328.8 billion in 2022 and N725 billion in 2023.
Echono also mentioned Nigeria’s progress in securing African research grants, moving from the ninth to the seventh position. However, he acknowledged challenges posed by the high exchange rate, which has impacted the number of scholars TETFund can support.
“Many of the institutions came back to us saying that it takes a lot of processes to get money from the Central Bank. But we now pay directly to the institution as part of our intervention. So CBN now transfers in bulk to different institutions for those scholars,” Echono explained.
With N3.8 billion allocated to support 1,500 scholars, TETFund has set criteria to determine scholarship eligibility, aiming to streamline and improve the intervention process. “We identify a cut-off point for those who will be eligible for the scholarship,” Echono said.
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