The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned the National Assembly and the National Economic Council against any attempt to dismantle the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) through the proposed tax reform bill.
In a press conference at Bayero University, Kano, on Wednesday, ASUU Zonal Coordinator for Kano Zone, Professor Abdulkadir Muhammad, stressed that the union would not stand by while its key initiative is dismantled.
Titled Nigeria Tax Bill 2024 and Its Consequences on TETFund: Killing the Brainchild of ASUU, Professor Muhammad argued that Nigerian universities could face imminent collapse if the bill currently before the assembly is passed.
The bill’s Section 56(3) specifies that TETFund will receive 50% of the development levy from the consolidated account in 2025 and 2026. This allocation will increase to 66.67% in 2027, 2028, and 2029, but will gradually be reduced to zero by 2030.
Professor Muhammad, who traced the union’s efforts in securing alternative funding for universities leading to the creation of the Education Trust Fund in 1993, later evolving into TETFund in 2011, expressed concern that efforts to abolish the fund would severely harm the progress of higher education in Nigeria.
“TETFund has been the most effective agency in providing support to the education sector. Its achievements far exceed those of the annual budgets, which have consistently fallen short of addressing the sector’s critical needs,” he said.
He highlighted TETFund’s widespread impact on Nigerian public universities, noting that its removal would significantly reverse progress and undermine the country’s higher education system.
“The ASUU-Kano zone has resolved to actively oppose any attempts to dismantle this essential fund, which has been vital in preventing the collapse of Nigeria’s university system. The current covert move to abolish TETFund is both unpopular and destructive, and it threatens the survival of public education in Nigeria,” Professor Muhammad declared.
He called on the National Assembly and National Economic Council to use their constitutional authority to block the bill’s passage and urged concerned Nigerians and stakeholders to pressure the federal government to withdraw the bill immediately.
Tax reform bills: Covert move to abolish TETFund is destructive – ASUU warns govt