The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has demanded that the Federal Government of Nigeria increase the Education Tax from the current 2.5 percent to 10 percent. The union says that this is to enable the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to mobilize more funds to properly address the challenges facing the tertiary education sub-sector. This was done at a Federal Government public presentation of 50 new textbooks, which was published by Nigerian authors and sponsored by TETFund.
TETFund’s Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, commented on the ASUU President’s demand for a 10 percent Education Tax. He said he was aware that the Buhari administration had done a lot in this regard. That President Buhari has taken two bold steps in two years, which has generated pushback from different industries. Despite the issue of multiple taxation and the difficult operating environment, the president increased Education Tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent; in the current Finance Bill, he has ensured that it will be increased to 3 percent.
Percentage for Educational Taxes are a later debate.
Echono said that he did not want to preempt until the Finance Bill is signed, but the actions of the president have shown that the president is committed and he wants to leave a legacy. He said, “Everyone knows that what is happening in most tertiary institutions is through the instrumentality of TETFund, so increasing funding will go a long way in achieving that. Whether we can go to 10 percent currently is a conversation that will be held somewhere else.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who unveiled the TETFund-sponsored textbooks in Abuja, said that the publications will end the dominance of foreign academic materials in the nation’s educational institutions. ASUU’s President, Comrade Emmanuel Osodeke, described TETFund as a brainchild of the union. Osodeke is attending public functions recently because of the looming face-off which the union is likely to have with the Federal Government. He commended ASUU for transforming the country’s higher education sub-sector and called for an increase in Education Tax to 10 percent to enable TETFund to improve its intervention in the sub-sector. He criticized the poor attitude of some big companies and wealthy Nigerians on the payment of Education Tax. He said that there was a need to reposition and expand Education Taxes net to gather more resources for tertiary institutions.
Production of indigenous books will not ensure the availability.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said that Nigeria’s tertiary institutions became dependent on foreign books with the attendant consequences of the Herculean processes and unfavorable exchange rates. He said it was equally worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in Nigeria leaves much to be desired. Therefore, he noted that it is expected that nourishing the culture of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in diverse fields taking cognizance of our local environment and worldview but also safeguard Nigeria’s national pride and reduce demand for foreign exchange.
Adamu commended TETFund for the publications and challenged the agency and its authors to also produce books in the nation’s indigenous languages. He said that going beyond publishing in the English language to promote authorship in our local languages is in line with the recently approved National Language Policy. The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Ochono, commended the authors, TETFund’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and others for the publication of the 50 new textbooks.
Initial editions of newly published books will be distributed to libraries.
He said that TETFund has set a minimum target of 50 textbooks per year. He said he is confident that the TAG will surpass everyone’s expectations. The TETFund head also assured everyone that the initial edition of newly published books will be distributed to the libraries of our tertiary institutions free of charge. He said that it is the subsequent publications that students and researchers will buy. Ochono said that the Ministry of Education has established an education cloud and tertiary institutions are digitizing their thesis and records. Through that system, he said that the digital copies of these materials can be accessed.
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