By Yakubu Uba
The Chairman Board of Trustees of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Alhaji Kashim Imam, has said that no fewer than 10,000 projects and over 30,000 trainings were done for staff of various tertiary institutions.
Imam, made this known on Monday in Maiduguri during a TETFund/FIRS Joint Interactive Forum with the theme: “Improving Education Development Tax (EDT) Collection in the Post Pandemic Era”.
According to Kashim, the projects are either completed or ongoing like auditoriums, laboratories, lecture theatres in 226 tertiary institutions across the country.
“Last year alone, we designated 12 universities as centres of excellence and we funded those universities to the tune of N12 billion that is one billion each to fund research.
“We replicated that with six polytechnics and six colleges of education. These are in addition to various other interventions,” Kashim said.
Kashim said the interactive session was designed to put heads together with personnel of Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) who are responsible for the collection of education tax and also an opportunity for the fund to give account of itself.
In his speech, the Chairman of FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami, who spoke on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected revenue generation affecting TETFund, assured that things have started improving.
Nami who was represented by Mr Kabir Abba, the Director Tax Operating Group, FIRS, spoke on major innovations to improve revenue collection and assured the service support to TETFund to deliver on its mandate.
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of University of Maiduguri, Prof. Aliyu Shugaba, represented by Prof. Mohammed Laminu, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, lauded TETFund for its support to tertiary institutions, adding that without the fund many institutions would have been crippled.
“We don’t know where we (institutions) we will be without TETund. We really thank government for TETFund,” Shugaba said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that highlight of the occasion included testimonies by some lecturers who benefitted from TETFUND training.
There was also the presentation of paper on TETFund activities by Mr Erivwo Innenne, the Director Strategic Planning and Development in TETFund who represented the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro. (NAN)
