President Bola Tinubu yesterday said in recognition of the role of TETFund in the development of public tertiary education in Nigeria, his administration would continue to support and strengthen activities of the fund.
Represented by the minister of works, Sen. David Umahi in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State at the commissioning of TETFund-sponsored projects at the Ebonyi State University permanent site in Abakaliki, President Tinubu said he had approved the implementation of the upward review of education tax to three percent with effect from September 2023.
He noted that the approval would in no small measure contribute to improved funding of the education sector and development of public tertiary institutions.
“It is important to also commend and appreciate the president for the commitment he has demonstrated towards the development of education since the commencement of his administration such as the introduction of the students loan initiative to ease access to tertiary education for indigent students, and meeting personally with the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to discuss the welfare of Nigerian students and recently, approving waiver of the No Work, No Pay order on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which would pave the way for members of the union to receive part of their withheld salaries,” Umahi said.
He added that the gesture were part of conscious efforts being made by the present administration to address students’ challenges and create industrial harmony between staff unions and government.
In his address, executive secretary of TETFund, Arch. Sunny Echonu said since Ebonyi State University was enlisted as a beneficiary, it had enjoyed allocations up to over N10.8billion for infrastructure-related interventions which cut across the annual, special, special high impact and zonal interventions among others.
He noted that the statistics revealed that about 88.24% of the funds had been accessed and deployed to address infrastructural deficiencies in the university.
Echono maintained that the fund had no doubt that the projects undertaken had remarkably impacted on the mandate of the university in facilitating teaching, learning and research.
“I wish to commend the Management of the University for assiduously monitoring and ensuring the successful delivery of the various intervention projects executed from inception.
“The three projects to be commissioned today are those executed under the years 2011-2015 (merged) annual and 2016-2019 (merged) annual interventions. The total costs amount to N1,551,746,734.20, all delivered successfully inline with the TETFund guidelines,” he said.
