PRESIDENT TINUBU APPROVES N683 BILLION AS 2024 INTERVENTION FUNDS

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved over N683 billion as 2024 allocation to Beneficiary Institutions of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny S.T Echono during the 2024 Strategic Planning Meeting held with heads of the institutions in January 2024 at the Fund’s Headquarters in Abuja.

Speaking at the meeting, Arc. 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 stabilization of 2.27 % is allowed to enable the Fund 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, each University will get, for the Year 2024 intervention cycle, the total amount of N1,906,944,930.00. This comprises N1,656,944,930.00 as Annual Direct Disbursement and N250million as Zonal Intervention. Similarly, each Polytechnic will 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 will get N1,398,426,282.00 comprising of N1,248,426,282.00 as Annual Direct Disbursement and N150million as Zonal Intervention,” he added.

The Executive Secretary also disclosed approvals for new interventions lines in the Annual Direct Disbursement which include establishment of Career Centres/Unit in all categories of Beneficiary Institutions as well as Institution-Based Skills Development for polytechnics.

For the Special Direct Disbursement, he announced that TETFund has increased the allocation for the Special High Impact Programme (SHIP), and the number of benefitting institutions have also been increased to two Universities, two Polytechnics and two Colleges of Education per geo-political zone, giving a total of 36 beneficiary institutions in the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria.

He further stated that other areas of Special Direct Disbursement include provision of hostels using the Public/Private Partnership arrangement, innovation hubs, disaster recovery to flood prone areas, security infrastructure, completion of abandoned projects and many others.

The Executive Secretary who spoke on the significant boost in Education Tax Collection (EDT) for 2024 said “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.

“I seize this opportunity to respectfully register our debt of gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for his commitment to the development of Education in his Renewed Hope agenda and to Prof. Tahir Mamman (SAN), for his leadership, trust and prompt consideration of our requests. We are grateful to all key actors, such as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating 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”.

Arc. Sonny Echono charged heads of beneficiary institutions on early implementation of their allocation. He advised them to consult widely with their community in the implementation of TETFund projects and also ensure timely payments to contractors and vendors when due. This, he said, would enable proper completion of projects and mitigate the incidence of contractor writing letters of complaints to the Fund.

Also speaking at the meeting, the Director Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Zubairu Abdullahi commended TETFund for its efforts in repositioning public tertiary educational institutions in the country, noting that the Ministry was proud of its performance.

He urged the Heads of Beneficiary Institutions and other stakeholders to intensify their efforts and key into the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration for education.