Students loan unreliable and not tested – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nsukka zone in Enugu State, has raised concerns over the Federal Governments student loan scheme, cautioning that it must not replace the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which funds infrastructure in tertiary institutions across Nigeria. ASUU expressed its commitment to resisting the potential abrogation of TETFund under the proposed Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, which aims to establish the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund). Speaking in Makurdi, Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Raphael Amokaha, described the bill as disturbing and an attempt to dismantle TETFund in favor of an untested loan scheme. Federal and state-owned tertiary institutions are currently referred to as TETFund Institutions because most projects are funded from this interventionist agency on which a death sentence has been passed through the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, Amokaha said. He added, In view of the foregoing, it becomes intriguing why anyone will want to kill TETFund by channeling its statutory funds to NELFund which has a very different mandate, student loans. NELFund is charged with the responsibility of giving students loans while TETFund has the mandate to develop infrastructure and build capacity. The student loan is clearly designed in such a manner that less than half of Nigerian students will benefit from the scheme and its sustainability has not been tested in any way, whereas any lecture room, laboratory, or clinic erected by TETFund will serve all the students. This plan to kill a development agency in preference to a poorly thought through, untested loan scheme is illogical, myopic, and anti-people, especially the middle class and the lower strata of society. ASUU argued that rather than undermining TETFund, the government should focus on improving its operations and ensuring its sustainability. The union reminded federal and state governments that TETFund serves as an interventionist agency and that governments have a duty to fund tertiary institutions through direct budgetary allocations in addition to interventions. The union also reaffirmed its resolve to protect TETFund from being dismantled, citing its 30-year track record of effectively funding infrastructure in tertiary institutions. It is our considered view that abrogating the TETFund Act 2011, by design or default, will be a great disservice not just to education but to Nigeria as a nation. As a result, ASUU is urging the National Assembly, especially the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to do all within their capacity to protect TETFund from being abrogated under the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the union stated. ASUU further called on state governments, which oversee universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, to defend their institutions against what it described as an existential threat. The union urged lawmakers to remember their responsibility to ensure access to affordable higher education. Members of House of Reps and the Senate must remember that they owe their constituents this responsibility of ensuring that their youth can attend higher institutions without the threat of exorbitant, unaffordable fees in either the public or private institutions for that will be the cost of killing TETFund, the union emphasized.The post Students loan unreliable and not tested ASUU appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.