The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has strongly opposed the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, calling for its rejection due to its potential to undermine the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and further destabilize Nigeria’s higher education system.
The union has criticised the proposed changes, especially the plan to abolish the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), warning that it could gravely affect public universities.
In a briefing on Thursday in Makurdi, Raphael Amokaha, the Zonal Coordinator for ASUU-Nsukka Zone, along with other members of the Zonal leadership, highlighted critical issues with the bill.
“Without prejudice to other sections of this bill, ASUU-Nsukka Zone and indeed ASUU National are horrified by the contents of this bill with regards to the Education tax (also called development levy) and its implication for TETFund,” Amokaha said.
One of the most concerning provisions, according to ASUU, is the proposal to phase out the education tax by 2030. “This education tax that government has proposed to end by 2030 is the source of funds for TETFund,”
Amokaha explained. “Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024, as proposed, specifically states that only 50% of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025 and 2026 while the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) would share the remaining percentages. TETFund will also receive ‘66.7% in 2027, 2028 and 2029 years of assessment’ but ‘0% in 2030 year of assessment and thereafter.’”
“This simply means that by 2030, all the proceeds from the Development Levy will be channelled into NELFUND, an agency that has not firmly taken root yet if it ever will, while TETFund will be strangulated to death. It must be stated here very clearly that taking any percentage out of the Education Tax (Development Levy) to service another agency not known to the TETFund Act 2011 is illegal,” Amokaha added.
Recalling the historical struggle for the establishment of TETFund, Amokaha emphasized that the union is not only passionate about the agency but also deeply concerned about its impact. “We can understand from history why ASUU is so passionate and protective of TETFund. But beyond being a baby of the union, we are more concerned about the achievements of TETFund, especially as we believe the agency has not even realised its full potential yet,” he stated.
Amokaha further illustrated TETFund’s success, saying, “A simple, verifiable illustration of the accomplishments of this agency even without recourse to figures is the fact that more than half of undergraduate students in our public universities today will be out of school because they will not have been able to get placement in a university. This was a home-grown solution to address issues of funding to rehabilitate decaying infrastructure, restore the lost glory of education and confidence in the system as well as consolidate the gains thereto; and to build the capacity of teachers and lecturers.”
TETFund’s role in supporting the growth of universities across Nigeria is undeniable, according to Amokaha. “In other words, without TETFund, these universities will not exist or at best will be glorified secondary schools with carrying capacities of not more than a thousand students each,” he said. He further pointed out that “at least 80% of the buildings carry the TETFund logo which shows they were either constructed by TETFund or renovated by TETFund, including street lighting and school clinics, not to talk of equipment in the laboratories.”
TETFund currently supports 244 public tertiary institutions across Nigeria, including 96 universities, 72 polytechnics, and 76 colleges of education. “Federal and state-owned tertiary institutions are currently referred to as ‘TETFund Institutions’ because most projects are funded from this interventionist agency, on which a death sentence has been passed through the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024,” Amokaha said.
The union also criticized the proposed shift of funding from TETFund to NELFUND, a student loan scheme. “The student loan is clearly designed in such a manner that less than half of Nigerian students will benefit from the scheme and its sustainability has not been tested in any way, whereas any lecture room, laboratory, or clinic erected by TETFund will serve all the students,” Amokaha noted.
He dismissed the student loan scheme as “illogical, myopic, and anti-people, especially the middle class and the lower strata of society.” He called on the federal and state governments to remember their responsibility to fund tertiary education through budgetary allocations, not just through interventions like TETFund.
ASUU has vowed to oppose the destruction of TETFund. “ASUU has resolved not to stand by and watch the denigration and obliteration of TETFund, an agency that has discharged its mandate decently in the last thirty years,” Amokaha declared. He called on the National Assembly to protect TETFund from being abrogated under the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024.
“Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate must remember that they owe their constituents this responsibility of ensuring that their youth can attend higher institutions without the threat of exorbitant, unaffordable fees in either the public or private institutions. That will be the cost of killing TETFund,” he concluded.
