VC flays FG over exclusion of private varsities from TETFUND
Agency says it spent N23b on research
VICE Chancellor of Evangel University, Akaeze, Ebonyi State, Prof. Ukpai Kalu Ichie, at the weekend, berated the Federal Government for its continuous exclusion of private universities from the benefits of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund ( TETFUND).
Ichie stated that there is no justification to continue to deny private universities’ patronage of TETFUND, when the Federal Government licensed their operations to help in the educational development of the country.
Ichie added that the private institutions have contributed in generating employment and skills, among other needs of the country, stressing that they have maintained a high level of competitiveness with public funded universities.
He explained that it is unfair that the Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) caused the Federal Government to promulgate a law to get companies to pay education tax, now referred to as TETFUND, only to exclude private universities from it.
He said: “Why should our lecturers not go for conferences, workshops and benefit from the government sponsored research through TETFUND? Why would lecturers in other public universities, who impact the same knowledge, gain government’s assistance in various ways and those in private universities are denied the same?
“As a private concern, we keep to standard to survive, and we ensure that we satisfy every requirement set for us by the National Universities Commission ( NUC) and other agencies. Yet, we don’t receive support from the government. It is very unfair that ASUU will fight for education tax from companies only for the accessibility of public universities. It is not a crime for Nigerians to study in private universities.”
MEANWHILE, TETFUND has said it spent over N23 billion on 912 research projects across the country.
Assistant Director, Research and Development ( R& D) of TETFUND, Dr. Hadiza Ismail, revealed this in Abuja, yesterday, at a validation workshop on Strengthening Research and Innovation Funding Agencies in West Africa.
Hadiza said that the agency was fully committed to the establishment of a science granting council in Nigeria.
While saying that TETFUND has continued to financially support research through the National Research Fund, Hadiza maintained that the Fund is also working hard to ensure that research outputs are linked to industry to bring about the desired development.
Also speaking, the President of African University of Science and Technology ( AUST), Abuja, Prof. Peter Onwualu, who harped on the importance of innovation in bringing about development, said that the workshop is expected to usher in a functional science granting council in Nigeria.