President Bola Tinubu today, Friday, November 17, announced the cancellation of the automatic deduction of 40 percent from the internally generated revenues of federal universities.
The President who was represented by the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, spoke on Friday at the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony of the University of Ibadan and described the policy implementation as “ill-timed”.
He also maintained that it was not the best time for such a policy since our universities are struggling.
In his speech as a Visitor to the university, Tinubu pledged his commitment to the reform of the nation’s education sector as the bedrock for national development.
The Federal Government, in a letter dated October 17, 2023, titled ‘Implementation of 40% automatic deduction from internally generated revenue of partially funded federal government institutions,’ said it would begin the deduction with effect from November 2023.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
The letter signed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, Director of Revenue and Investment, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Felix Ore-ofe Ogundairo, said the auto-deduction policy of gross IGR was in line with the Finance Circular with reference number FMFBNP/OTHERS/IGR/CRF/12/2021 dated December 20, 2021.
Reacting, the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities has written a protest letter to the Federal Government, demanding that the government rescind the plan to deduct 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenues of federal universities.
The Secretary-General Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, said the government could not be demanding 40 per cent of varsities IGR when it had refused to grant them autonomy.
Ochefu explained that the Finance Act 2020 specified that 40 per cent could only be sent to the FG if there was a surplus, saying in the case of universities, there was no surplus but a lack of funding because universities only get user charges from students and not profits or revenues.
