Supporting Tertiary Education Through Increased Taxation, by Rahma Oladosu

The most prominent avenue through which the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) raises funds to prosecute its statutory intervention projects and programmes in Nigerian tertiary institutions is through the Education Tax known as EDT.

According to a recent post on TETFund’s website, “the intervention agency’s main source of income is the two per cent education tax paid from the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria. The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) collects this tax on behalf of the Fund.”

EDT is the magic wand for TETFund. It is through the instrumentality of the EDT that many Nigerian universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education (CoEs) are now wearing a new look.

The EDT is what TETFund deploys to build Senate Buildings, Lecture Theatres, Science Laboratories, Student Hostels, and Staff Offices, among other facilities in public tertiary institutions.

One will not be exaggerating to also assert that nothing but the EDT is what facilitated the establishment of TETFund’s Centre of Excellence, Academic Publishing Centres, and Research Centres in several public universities, polytechnics and CoEs, across the country.

How about the National Research Fund (NRF) through which TETFund awards research grants to Nigerian academics, lecturers and researchers? It is certain that the EDT is the enabler.

In short, it is through the aid of the EDT that the lost glory and fortunes of many Nigerian tertiary institutions are either restored or salvaged through robust and aggressive infrastructural development on campuses.

Nevertheless, the failure of registered companies (in the past) in meeting their EDT obligation appears to be constraining TETFund from accessing funds to fulfill their mandate.

A former Executive Secretary of TETFund, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, sometime in 2016 alleged that over 50 percent of registered companies in the country are evading the two percent EDT imposed by the Federal Government, thereby putting the agency in a difficult situation.

Fast forward to 2022, the administration of the incumbent TETFund helmsman, Prof. Elias Sulaiman Bogoro, seems to have tackled the age-long crises of inadequate EDT

It is gratifying to note that the amount received by TETFund as EDT has risen in recent years. In 2021, for example, the intervention agency received N189bn as EDT.

Prof. Bogoro, recently announced this at TETFund’s ‘2021 Education Development Tax, EDT, Forum’ in Jos. The forum, organised in collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), aimed at improving EDT in the country.

The event tagged “Improving EDT Collection in the Post Pandemic Era”, had participants from various higher institutions of learning and other government organisations.

Bogoro, who was represented by Irene Erivwo, the Director Strategic Planning and Development of TETFUND, said that the figures generated in the year under review were far lower compared to previous years.

He, however, explained that the advent of COVID-19 pandemic had grossly affected the revenue generation in the nation, hence the need for deeper collaboration towards scaling up the generation of EDT.

“Over the years, TETFUND has been recording improvement in the education tax collection. For example, in 2013, the Fund had an EDT of more than N270 billion and since then FIRS has been striving to achieve the annual EDT targets in spite of the obvious challenges.

“In 2021, the fund received an EDT of N189 billion, which was considerably lower than the previous years. COVID-19 pandemic, no doubt affected economic activities globally and this had negative effect in the EDT collection for 2021.

“We are equally aware that economic activities were seriously slowed down and, in some cases, halted from March 2020 when lock-down was imposed and movement within the country restricted.

“This affected the performance of industries and companies which invariably affected the EDT collection for 2021,” he said.

Bogoro, who said the forum was an annual event, added that it would avail TETFUND and FIRS the opportunity to barnstorm on ways to improve EDT collection. He said that the forum created an opportunity for the enhancement of the existing working relationship between the two organisations.

“This forum is a yearly platform where the Fund and FIRS engage in strategic discussion on EDT collection.

“It has become necessary for us to increase our drive in EDT collection to enable the Fund meet up with the challenges and its commitment to the development of our tertiary education system.

“It is worrisome that the EDT collection for 2021 was far below the target set for the year, hence the need for such a forum to address these issues,” he added.

Bogoro, however, noted that TETFUND had recorded significant impact on infrastructural development, adding that the National Research Fund, NRF, has increased from N5 billion to N7.5 billion in 2020 and N8.5 billion in 2021.

The Executive Secretary added that the Fund funded the establishment of centres of excellence each in twelve selected institutions between 2020 and 2021.

He said that it has started a capacity building programme for beneficiary institutions aimed at improving the global competitiveness and visibility of universities, entrepreneurship and skills development for polytechnics and pedagogy skills and curriculum development for colleges of education.

Muhammad Nami, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, described the forum as timely, adding that it would foster relationship and create opportunity for exchange of ideas toward the actualisation of their mandates.

Represented by Dr Dick Irri, the Coordinating Director, Compliance Support Group of FIRS, Nami acknowledged that 2021 was indeed a challenging year.

He, however, said that it had put modalities on ground, including the deployment of a home-grown technology and that more taxes would be collected in 2022.

He maintained that the newly developed software known as “Taxpromax”, would enable taxpayers file and pay taxes with ease.

The steady increase in the EDT portends good omen for TETFund, and also, hundreds of Nigerian tertiary institutions that are beneficiaries of the intervention agency’s ‘milk of human kindness’.

No doubt the challenges plaguing Nigeria’s tertiary education system are multi-faceted . Addressing them does not appear to be simple. It is taxing, and requires funds indeed. A lot of funds.

Rahma Olamide Oladosu is a Staff Writer with the Economic Confidential