A total of N359 billion is currently missing from coffers of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) following a continuous withdrawal by the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2013 without official notice.
According to the Executive secretary of TETFund, Suleiman Bogoro, the Federal Government has continued to deduct money meant for the fund without notice.
Bogoro revealed this while responding questions raised by a member of the House Committee on TETFund chaired during an oversight visit on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, N263.9 billion was deducted in 2013 during former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, while N58 billion and N40 billion were deducted in in 2017 and 2018 respectively under the current administration.
Bogoro explained that a large part of the funds was deducted before his first term as the executive secretary of the Fund in 2014.
He added that findings revealed that a total of N359 billion has been deducted by the Federal government hampering the optimal performance of the Fund.
“A total of N128 billion out was deducted by the Federal Government for something completely unrelated to education”, Bogoro said, stressing that it has been a major challenge to the Tetfund.
He noted that the funds were deducted without an official communication or notice from the Federal Governmentto the Fund.
However, he thanked the National Assembly for flagging the issue at their respective plenary and disclosing that steps were already being taken to retrieve the deducted fund.
TETFund was established as an intervention agency to support tertiary institutions in Nigeria through a 2-percent tax deduction from all companies registered in Nigeria.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94