FG Owing TETFUND N323bn, Executive Secretary Reveals

•Says no missing funds 

•Reps not witch-hunting agency, Oke declares

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Mr. Sonny Echono, yesterday revealed that the federal government was owing the agency the sum of N323 billion.

Echono, made this known during his appearance before the House of Representative’s Ad-hoc Committee’s public hearing on the alleged missing N2.3 trillion.

The House of Representatives had last Tuesday, set up the Committee, headed by Hon Oluwole Oke, to investigate the alleged abuse of N2.3 trillion generated from the Tertiary Education Tax by the Fund from 2011 to 2023.

Echono, who said the allegation was not true, added that the actual sum generated from education tax from 2011 to 2022, was N2.476 trillion out of which the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) retained N99 billion as cost of collection.

“The federal government since 2013 had borrowed N371.3 billion from the Fund out of which it had paid N48 billion so far. We do have challenges, but these challenges have nothing to do with fraud.

“They are basically issues of governance and I would start by explaining what the challenges are. First in absolute terms, so we have a clear picture of what we are talking about. From the year 2011 to 2022, total education tax collected by the FIRS as presented to us in their documentations, as confirmed from the statements we received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which we have also attached for the Committee to peruse is N 2, 476, 733, 181, 679.75.”

According to the executive secretary, “Out of this amount, a total sum of N99 billion were retained by the FIRS as cost of collection leaving a balance of N2.37 trillion. So the total fund that had hit education pool account at the CBN is N2.3 trillion from 2011 to date. “The federal government over time in the course of governance and to meet pressing needs has borrowed funds from these accounts.

“The total borrowing is approximately N371.339 billion. These borrowings happened over time and most of the borrowings started in 2013.

“The federal government acknowledges that it was borrowing and we have full documentation of this and all the correspondences that accompanied it. Other borrowings since then are being tabulated and given to you (the lawmakers).

“We did secure presidential approval for the refund of this borrowing since 2015 and the FG has been refunding, albeit in piece meal.”

He further revealed that, “to date, total borrowing is over N371 billion. But total repayment to this date is about N48 billion. Last year, N12.8 billion was given to us, this year another N12.89 billion was given to us.

They are just paying. God knows how long this will take to defray the principal amount.”

Echono, consequently called on the Ad hoc Committee to assist the Fund in recovering the money and that consultations were ongoing to suspend foreign scholarships as a result of the current exchange rate.

“The tax accruable to the fund is generated by the FIRS and the fund’s account is domiciled in the CBN. Some of the tax comes in foreign currencies to CBN, but when it is time to pay fees for scholars abroad, the apex bank insists on TETFUND source forex by itself.”

While urging the committee to intervene and compel the CBN to allow TETFUND access to forex to pay fees as at when due, he added that, “We operate a system where our forex is being sold on our behalf at an official rate and we apply like anybody else to get it, sometimes it leads to additional cost.

“Currently as I speak, we are in consultations with all our stakeholders to suspend foreign training for a year or two. This is because of the recent exchange rate adjustment. We are unable to continue based on our disbursement guideline. The money we allocated in naira cannot cover the dollar requirement for training.

“Those who are currently there, we now need more naira to pay for the dollar that is required for their annual fees. We are trying to put a hold.”

 He also noted that they had earlier decided that only limited courses where they do not have capacity in Nigerian institutions would qualify for foreign sponsorship.

The Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Oke, while making his remarks emphasised that the Committee was not to witch-hunt anybody but to find out what actually transpired.

He added that the Committee would look into the Submission of the Agency and oversight the sites of the capital projects claimed to have been executed.