The National Assembly has been called upon to amend the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act to allow private universities access to funding under the scheme, addressing what has been described as an unfair exclusion limiting their ability to build infrastructure, support research, and develop academic programmes.
Dr Sikiru Nurudeen, Associate Professor of Political Science at Al Hikmah University, Ilorin, made the call, noting that private universities train a significant portion of Nigeria's future workforce and should be included in interventions that strengthen higher education.
The current TETFund Act restricts funding to public tertiary institutions, including federal and state universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, leaving private universities without access to the billions of naira collected from the education tax.
Nurudeen urged lawmakers to revise the law so that both public and private universities can benefit from research grants, infrastructure development, and staff capacity building.
He argued that including private universities would help bridge infrastructure gaps, improve research output, and raise academic standards nationwide.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund was established to provide supplementary support to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, drawing revenue from a 2% education tax levied on companies' assessable profits.
Private universities, despite contributing to the expansion of access to tertiary education in Nigeria and absorbing thousands of students who might otherwise be unable to secure admission into public institutions, remain ineligible for TETFund interventions under the current legal framework.
The exclusion has been a subject of debate within the Nigerian higher education sector, with private institution operators arguing that their contributions to national development warrant consideration for government support.
Nurudeen's call adds to growing advocacy for policy reforms that recognise the role of private universities in Nigeria's tertiary education landscape, particularly as the sector faces challenges, including inadequate funding, infrastructure deficits, and brain drain affecting both public and private institutions.
The Associate Professor emphasised that revising the TETFund Act to accommodate private universities would strengthen the overall quality of higher education in Nigeria, enabling more institutions to invest in critical areas such as laboratory equipment, library resources, academic staff development, and cutting edge research facilities that benefit the nation's knowledge economy.
