The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has cautioned the federal government that its proposal to phase out the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) by 2030 could devastate Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions and make education inaccessible to the poor.
ASUU National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, raised the alarm in reaction to provisions in the Nigeria Tax Reform Bill 2024, currently before the National Assembly. The bill proposes reallocating the Development Levy—an education tax that funds TETFund—to other agencies, culminating in the elimination of TETFund by 2030.
The bill outlines that TETFund will receive 50% of the levy between 2025 and 2026, while the remaining share will go to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), and the National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND). However, starting in 2030, NELFUND is set to receive 100% of the levy, leaving TETFund and other agencies with no allocation.
Osodeke argued that such a move would cripple public universities, which heavily rely on TETFund for infrastructure and development. “Without TETFund, many public tertiary institutions would have collapsed due to a lack of basic facilities. Phasing out TETFund will render tertiary education unaffordable and undo decades of effort to establish and maintain the fund,” he said.
He also warned that reallocating the levy entirely to NELFUND, which supports the student loan scheme, would force public institutions to significantly increase tuition fees, pricing out low-income families.
Osodeke appealed to the federal government to reconsider its decision, stressing that the survival of Nigeria’s public tertiary education system depends on the continued operation of TETFund. “If you visit public tertiary institutions, you’ll see that anything new or decent has been provided by TETFund,” he noted.
ASUU’s warning comes amid ongoing debates over the future of education funding and access in Nigeria, with stakeholders urging the government to balance reforms with the preservation of affordable and quality education.
