The federal government has announced that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) will now allocate 30% of its funds from the Federation Account to support student loans under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He explained that the move was part of the proposed amendments to the Economic Stabilisation Bill, currently before the National Assembly.
He emphasised that the amendment to the TETFund Act 2011 was a crucial element of the Bill that would directly impact Nigerian students.
“The other one is the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Amendment Bill 2024. Why it’s important is that it has an element there that affects the Nigerian Loan Education Fund.
“Some of us have been wondering how we are going to fund the NELFUND, and the government has an answer. Most of the funding will come from the money going to TETFund,” Onanuga said.
He further clarified that before TETFund disburses its funds, it will now set aside 30% of its allocation to be transferred to NELFUND, providing a dedicated source of funding for student loans.
Addressing concerns about the potential impact of the amendment of the law on TETFund’s ability to support public tertiary institutions, Onanuga assured that the Fund’s interventions would not be compromised.
He noted that since its inception, TETFund has played a visible role in improving infrastructure across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
“TETFund has been doing a lot of work helping universities, not just on university education, but also colleges of education and polytechnics.
“The government must have looked at the money accruing to it and felt that maybe if you take away 30%, it will also help the students who go to these schools,” he said.
Onanuga explained that the 30% allocation to NELFUND was intended as supplementary support, while the federal government will continue to provide budgetary allocations to fully fund the loan scheme for students.
“So that may be the logic of government—that TETFund should also fund NELFUND. And NELFUND money will not only come from TETFund, but there will also be budgetary allocation from the federal government all the time. So this one is supplementary.”
In addition, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media, O’tega Tegra, recalled that President Bola Tinubu, during his address to Nigerians during the #EndBadGovernance protests, promised that all financial recoveries from illegal activities would be channelled towards funding the student loan scheme.
Tegra also noted that the government has waived the requirement for public higher institutions to remit a portion of their internally generated revenue to the federal government, allowing them to better support their operations.
“All universities used to give a portion of their internally generated revenue to the federal government. That has been stopped. So all the IGR universities get can now be used to support the institutions,” Tegra said.
He acknowledged that while budgetary allocations for education could be improved, the new steps were part of ongoing efforts to bridge funding gaps for public higher institutions.
“Also, there’s something else that this government has done. All universities before used to give a portion of the IGR you know, they used to remit it to the federal government.
“That has been stopped. So all IGR universities get because you mentioned universities and how they can fund themselves can be used to support the institutions.
“We know they need a lot more funding. We know the budgetary allocations to education can be improved, but a lot is being done, at least in the interim, to bridge whatever, you know, funding gaps that they have,” he added.
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