President Bola Tinubu has approved a N683,429,268 billion intervention fund to public tertiary education in Nigeria, including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, for the 2024 cycle.
This represents an increase from last year’s N320 billion allocation.
Sonny Echono, Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), disclosed the allocation details during the agency’s strategic planning meeting with heads of beneficiary institutions in Abuja on Friday. Echono outlined the distribution plan, with universities receiving N1,906,944,930.00 each, polytechnics N1,165,355,235.00 each, and colleges of education N1,398,426,282.00 each.
Echono said: “I am pleased to inform you that Mr President has approved the Year 2024 disbursement guidelines in the total sum of N683,429,268,402.64. From this total, 90.75 % is budgeted for direct disbursement and 8.94 % for some designated special projects. A stabilisation of 2.27 % is allowed to enable the Fund to respond to emerging issues.
“This is inclusive of the difference between actual collections and the projections made for November and December 2023 collections as requested and approved by Mr. President.
“Based on this approval: the university shall get, for the Year 2024 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,906,944,930.00. This comprises N1,656,944,930.00 as annual direct disbursement and N250 million as zonal intervention. Similarly, each Polytechnic shall get N1,165,355,235.00 comprising of N1,015,355,235.00 as annual direct disbursement and N150million as zonal intervention, while each College of Education shall get N1,398,426,282.00 comprising of N1,248,426,282.00 as annual direct disbursement and N150million as zonal intervention.
“It is pertinent to note that this represents a very significant increase above our last year’s intervention and indeed every other year, since inception.
“This remarkable success is due to sustained efforts at expanding and increasing the efficiency of collection of the Education Tax, and the gracious concurrence of Mr. President for an increase in the tax from 2.5% to 3.0% in the year 2023.
“We are grateful to all the key actors, notably the Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, the Chairmen and members of the Senate and House Committees on TETFund and the Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) for their unwavering support, towards the sustainable improvement of the collection.”
He further said the meeting was also an avenue to receive feedback and evaluate the performance of the intervention lines.
