The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Arc. Sonny Echono, says the fund will commence the construction of its North-Central zonal office in Nasarawa State, in January 2023.
He said Governor Abdullahi Sule has approved and allocated land for the construction of the north central zonal office.
Arc. Echono stated this when the governor paid him a courtesy visit on Thursday in Abuja.
Echono, who expressed delight over the impact of TETFund intervention projects in tertiary education institutions in Nasarawa, said the zonal office would bring beneficiary institutions in the North-Central region closer to the Fund.
He expressed the readiness of TETFund to reposition public tertiary education institutions for better performance, saying, “We also express our profound appreciation to His Excellency, the President, for his wonderful support he has given to TETFund. With the effect from this year, TETFund is now getting 2 and half per cent not two per cent as education tax, and Mr President has assured us that before he leaves, before the end of his administration, it will get to three per cent.”
Earlier, the governor, who commended the TETFund for the various intervention projects in Nasarawa State University and other public tertiary institutions in his state, said, “After I assumed office as governor, I visited here for help to introduce the faculty of engineering and faculty of medicine at the Nasarawa State University.
“We got the high impact and we were able to set up the faculties of medicine and engineering in Nasarawa State University. So, I thank the management of TETFund for the support we received.”
He however noted that Nasarawa State still wants more from TETFund in order to meet the developmental needs of the state.
While expressing the wish that education tax would be reviewed to four per cent to ensure more robust performance from the Fund, he commended President Buhari’s move to ensure increment of the education tax to three per cent by next year.
