ASUU calls for protection of TETFUND in the face of Tax Bill 2024
Pqconnect 
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Sokoto Zone has urged the National Assembly to reject the proposed Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, which threatens to abolish the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
According to the union, the bill proposes to allocate only 50% of the Development Levy to TETFUND in 2025 and 2026, with the remaining percentage shared among NITDA, NASENI, and NELFUND. Furthermore, TETFUND is scheduled to receive zero funding from the Development Levy starting in 2030.
Addressing journalists at a press conference in Sokoto on Wednesday, the union’s Zonal Coordinator, Abubakar Sabo, said the development is detrimental to the national development aspirations of TETFUND’s existence.
He added that the implementation of the tax reform, if enacted, would affect infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity enhancement in public tertiary institutions over the past 15 years.
The union emphasised that TETFUND’s impact on higher education institutions is immeasurable, and abolishing it would set back public tertiary education by several years.
It also noted that TETFUND supports 244 public tertiary institutions, comprising 96 universities, 72 polytechnics, and 76 colleges of education.
Sabo stated that the union is taking a firm stand against the degradation or eradication of TETFUND and urged the National Assembly to safeguard the fund from being abolished under the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024.
The union also called on Nigerians to hold the government responsible for any consequences arising from the neglect of university education and the shabby treatment of academic staff.
