Reps probe TETFund over slow funds assessment by tertiary institutions

The House of Representatives has queried the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) over the slow process of tertiary institutions accessing funds in the country.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on TETFund, Miriam Onuoha, made this known during an oversight function for the agency in Abuja on Thursday, May 30, 2024.

Onuoha said the committee frowned at such a situation where funds meant for tertiary institutions were not accessed by those they were meant for.

She urged state governors to use their office to ensure that heads of institutions comply with TETFund on accessed funds.

Speaking on the purpose of the oversight, Onuoha said it was meant to see how the agency had performed in the 2022–2023 budget, in line with the budgetary provision.

The lawmaker noted that, in line with the function of the committee, the committee must ensure that allocations made to TETFund are used judiciously.

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Speaking, TETFund Executive Secretary Sonny Echono commended Onuoha for intervening in the payment of education tax by summoning commercial bank executives.

Echono said there had been a rise in education tax collection from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent, which has to do with the efficiency of collection.

He said the collection from education tax in 2020 was N257 billion, and by 2021, TETFund received a sharp decline in the tax collection of N185.5 billion.

He added that the collection rose to 328.8 billion in 2022 and 725 billion in 2023, respectively.

Echono added that before now, Nigeria was not doing well in research grants.

The TETFund boss, however, added that efforts had been made as Nigeria had moved from the ninth position to the seventh position in African research grants.

He lamented that the high exchange rate had reduced the number of scholars TETFund trained in its interventions.

Echono said remittances to scholars in the past were not too good, saying: “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.

“We have taken care of 1,500 scholars with a total of N3.8 billion extended. We identify a cut-off point for those who will be eligible for the scholarship.”

The Star