The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, made
this known during an oversight visit to the Fund by the House of
Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund in Abuja.
He said the high exchange rate caused some challenges for
TETFund-sponsored scholars as many of them requested extra funding, adding that
the issue has also resulted in a drop in the number of beneficiaries of the
Fund’s academic training programme in foreign institutions.
While saying that the remittances process for scholars in
the past was not that good, Echono said many of the institutions came back to
TETFund expressing concerns over the payment system.
“But we now pay directly to the institutions as part of our
intervention. So CBN now transfers in bulk to different institutions for those
scholars.
“We have taken care of 1500 scholars with a total of N3.8
billion expended. We identify a cut-off point for those who will be eligible
for the scholarship,” Echono said.
The TETFund boss, who commended the Honourable Miriam
Onuoha-led Reps’ Committee, also reeled out various projects and interventions
of the agency that are fast making positive impacts in the country.
He lavished praise on the committee for its support, which
has seen a rise in education tax collection from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent.
He said the collection from education tax in 2020 was N257
billion, and by 2021, the fund received a sharp decline in the tax collection
of N185.5 billion.
He added that the collection rose to N328.8 billion in 2022
and N725 billion in 2023, respectively.
On the issue of attracting foreign grants for cutting-edge
research, Echono said that before now, Nigeria was not doing well, adding that
through the efforts of TETFund the story has changed as it moved from the 9th
position to the 7th in Africa in terms of countries that attract the highest
research grants on the continent.
On her part, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Miriam
Onuoha, lauded Echono for the manner in which he has meticulously executed
projects and other interventions in line with the mandate of the TETFund.
Onuoha, however, expressed concern about the situation where
funds meant for tertiary institutions were not accessed by those they were
meant for.
She urged relevant government bodies as well as state
governors to use their instrumentality of office to ensure that heads of
institutions comply with TETFund on accessing their funds.
Speaking on the purpose of the oversight, Onuoha said it was
meant to see how the agency had performed in the 2022–2023 budget, in line with
the budgetary provision.
Onuoha noted that, in line with the function of the
committee, it must ensure that allocations made to TETFund are used
judiciously.