Federal government has approved the sum of N320.345 billion as the 2023 intervention funds for public institutions across the country.
The executive secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Mr Sonny Echono, disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, during an annual strategic planning workshop with all heads of beneficiary institutions.
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Echono said the 2023 financial disbursement to tertiary institutions as approved by Buhari received a boost from N189 billion in 2022 to over N320 billion in 2023.
The meeting, according to him, was an avenue to receive feedback and evaluate the performance of its intervention and to help it deliver on its mandate in a more effective and efficient manner.
He stated that each university shall get, for the Year 2023 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,154,732,133.00, each Polytechnic shall get N699,344,867.00, while each College of education shall get N800,862,602.
The executive secretary said, “I am pleased to inform you that Mr President has approved the 2023 disbursement guidelines in the total sum of N320.345 billion on the basis of this, each university shall get, for the Year 2023 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,154,732,133.
“This comprises N954,732,123.00 as annual direct disbursement and N200 million as zonal intervention. Similarly, each Polytechnic shall get N699,344,867 comprising of N569,344,807 as annual direct disbursement and N130million as zonal intervention, while each college of education shall get N800,862,602 comprising of N670,862,602 as annual direct disbursement and N130 million as zonal intervention.
“It is pertinent to note that this represents the highest disbursement to each beneficiary institution, since inception of the Fund.”
Echono further said the fortunes of the Nigerian tertiary education sector has improved significantly under the Buhari administration, saying that between 2015 to date (8 years), the total sum of N1.702trillion has been disbursed as EDT collection to public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education compared to a total sum of N1.249trillion disbursed from the inception of the Fund in 1993 up to 2014 (21 years).
“This remarkable success is due to sustained efforts at expanding and increasing efficiency of collection of the Education Tax and added impetus is the gracious approval of Mr. President for an increase in education tax from 2.0% to 2.5% in the year 2021,” he added.
Echono also urged Buhari, as a parting gift to the education sector and a fitting finale to his manifest desire to improve education funding in the country, for his ascent to the Finance Act 2023, which provides for a further increase in education tax from 2.5 percent to three percent.
Also, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo urged the beneficiary institutions to use the intervention judiciously, saying that the country is no longer looking for paper presentations but what one can do with his brain and hands.
The executive secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof Idris Bugaje, said that intervention represented 0.2 percent or less of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Bugaje called for increase in the interventions and a drive for equal sharing formula among all tertiary institutions.
Also, the executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, expressed satisfaction with the improvement in the tertiary institutions interventions as the highest so far in the history of the fund.