Senate Suggests Increase On Tertiary Education Tax By 3%
The Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions has hinted the need for a rise in tertiary education tax from 2.5 to three per cent to promote research and development in Nigeria.
The committee suggested this during an oversight visit to Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to confirm the level of 2021/2022 performance of the budget.
The committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Babba Kaita emphasized the need for an upward review of education tax as well as the health sector as they are two critical sectors that steer development.
It encouraged the agency to integrate the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) in its interventions, adding that no country could flourish in the area of research, science, technology, and innovation without embracing mathematics.
Furthermore, Kaita encouraged TETFund to hasten efforts on providing an oxygen generator requested by Kaduna State Polytechnic during COVID-19 in 2020.
Nexus News learnt that the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, had earlier said in 2021 that the agency disbursed N213bn to tertiary institutions, including take-off grants for newly established institutions.
Speaking on the request to provide the oxygen generator for Kaduna State Polytechnic, Echono said the fund had approved N50 million for the research and that half of the money had been paid.
