Date: 2020-12-09

The management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has disclosed that about 226 tertiary institutions in the country would access N500 billion from the fund in 2021.

It said the fund set that target of N500 billion as education tax for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in 2021 "considering the magnitude of challenges facing tertiary education in Nigeria."

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of TETFund, Alhaji Kashim Imam disclosed this in Ilorin, Kwara State, during an inspection tour of all the TETFund site projects executed at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Kwara State University, Malete and Nigeria Army School of Education, Sobi Barrack, Ilorin.

The inspection tour was on the sidelines of the joint interactive session, organised by the fund, in conjuction with the FIRS for education stakeholders in the North-central Zone of the country, in Ilorin.

Imam said the fund is committed to improving the quality and standard of education of the nation's universities, adding that the BoT under him is determined to prove that "public agencies must, should work and 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."

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of TETfund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, represented by the Director of Finance, Idris Saidu, said the fund is "striving to change the narratives by taking practical steps to put the nation on a revolutionary path of a knowledge-based economy."

He said the agency is committed to impact on the nation's tertiary institutions comprising 226 federal and state universities, federal and state polytechnics and colleges of education for improved infrastructure components.