TETFund Received N3.8trn Between 2013 – 2023 NEITI Report Reveals
By Gift Eguavoen
The Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji has disclosed that over N3.8 trillion accrued to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) between 2013 and 2023, according to NEITI oil, gas and solid minerals sector audit reports.
A breakdown of the last two year’s accruals as revealed in the latest reports of the NEITI industry audits of the oil, gas and mining sectors for 2023 showed that accruals to the Fund were N229.34billion in 2022 and N564.65billion in 2023 respectively.
Dr. Orji stated this when the Executive Secretary of TETFund Arc. Sonny Echeono, and management of the Fund paid a courtesy visit to the NEITI House in Abuja. During the visit both agencies committed to strengthen their partnership on accessibility to credible data, tax compliance and revenue disclosures.
While commending TETFund for its visibility in the provision of infrastructure and research and development support to tertiary institutions in Nigeria, both also agencies committed to manpower training and development, public finance management and educational financing for their staff and other critical stakeholders on transparency and natural resource governance.
Dr. Orji emphasised the need for stronger collaboration between NEITI and TETFund to ensure that funds meant for development of tertiary education in Nigeria and overall national development from the extractive sector were efficiently and transparently managed.
“Over the years, NEITI has closely monitored revenues accruing from the oil, gas, and mining sectors, particularly the Education Tax, which forms a major component of TETFund’s financial inflows. NEITI has noted with significant concerns the remittances of the funds by liable operating entities, as well as the prudent and accountable management of the revenues to achieve intended purposes,” Orji stated.
He added that through closer cooperation, NEITI and TETFund would ensure prompt remittances of Education Tax; promote prudent utilisation of funds, and encourage data sharing and joint research, while assuring that NEITI would continue to track payments from oil and gas companies, to ensure the correct taxes were remitted as and when due, in line with the provisions of the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA).
According to Orji, accountability in the use of these funds would build public confidence in the tax system and ensure that tertiary institutions received adequate funding for infrastructure, research, and human capital development.
Dr. Orji further stated that to enhance decision-making, policy formulation, and resource allocation to critical educational needs, partnership and technical support from TETFund to complete the NEITI Data Centre and Library would be a strategic investment.
When completed, Orji said the NEITI Data Centre would serve as a comprehensive repository for information on Nigeria’s oil, gas, and solid minerals industries, including all NEITI Annual Industry Reports from 1999 to date. It would offer data analysis services and training in data science to promote knowledge and innovation driven by research, while complying with the Open Data policy requirements under the EITI 2023 Standard.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, said their visit was to seek collaboration with NEITI in the areas of access to data on what is accruable to TETFund, tax compliance by extractive companies to ensure that they pay what they ought to pay; Revenue transparency on reporting to ensure that there are no gaps between companies’ payment and their disclosures to FIRS.
“These pieces of information will enable TETFund expand their support for infrastructural development of tertiary institutions in Nigeria,” Arc. Echono said, explaining that TETFund has enormous confidence in the credibility of NEITI data and availability capabilities which his agency finds quite useful in its revenues generation drive.
To this end, a joint initiative to train TETFund stakeholders, tertiary institutions, and key policymakers on transparency, accountability, and public finance management principles in line with global best practices was agreed upon.
Also, NEITI and TETFund agreed to collaborate on the dissemination and engagement efforts with stakeholders especially the academia for in-depth analysis on the NEITI reports, extractive revenue flows and the correlation to eradicating poverty and institutionalising sustainability practices in our socio-economic environment.
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