The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, on Monday signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to strengthen revenue tracking and ensure prompt remittances of the 5 per cent education tax from the extractive sector to TETFund.
The MoU, described as a “historic convergence of mandates and national priorities,” is designed to create a seamless data-sharing framework that links revenue accruals from Nigeria’s vast oil, gas, and solid minerals sector directly to the funding pipeline for tertiary education development.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Abuja, Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, said the collaboration is aimed at not only boosting internally generated revenue but also ensuring that what is due to TETFund is accurately tracked, verified, and recovered if necessary.
“We are particularly concerned about entities, especially offshore operators, whose tax obligations are complex and often difficult to monitor. With NEITI’s core competence in data tracking and auditing in the extractive sector, we can now ensure that companies remit the correct dues into the Education Tax Fund in a timely and transparent manner,” Echono said.
The partnership comes at a critical time as the federal government transitions from an “Education Tax” regime to a “Development Levy,” of which TETFund is statutorily entitled to 50 percent.
The MoU will provide a robust framework to monitor collections under the new levy, even as new tax reforms are expected to reshape the landscape of public revenue generation.
Echono further disclosed that TETFund had earlier established a full-fledged Department of Revenue and Investment, which now works with the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and other agencies to verify corporate tax compliance across its zonal offices.
He however, noted that challenges persist, especially in high-revenue but complex sectors like oil and gas, gaps the MoU intends to fill.
On his part, Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, hailed the MoU as more than a formality, but a shared national commitment to ensure Nigeria’s resource wealth benefits all citizens, especially through education.
“TETFund manages a vital downstream application of extractive revenue, while NEITI tracks upstream accruals. This agreement connects the dots, from extraction to education,” Orji said.
He noted that NEITI’s audit reports revealed that total accruable revenues to TETFund from 2019 to 2023 exceeded N1.02 trillion, with N571 billion recorded in 2023 alone, the highest to date.
He however emphasized that remittances must match actual accruals, a gap this partnership seeks to eliminate.
He said under the MoU, NEITI will provide real-time data on what extractive companies owe and pay, enabling TETFund to anticipate and pursue funds due.
The collaboration will help track companies in default, ensuring enforcement and recovery.
He added that it will facilitate evidence-based decision-making in TETFund’s allocation of resources, and strengthen transparency in the implementation of the rebranded development levy under Nigeria’s new tax reform law.
Dr. Orji stressed that beyond plugging leakages, the alliance aims to transform mineral wealth into human capital by guaranteeing that education funds are both adequate and transparently utilized.
“The real wealth of any nation lies not beneath the ground, but in the minds of its people. By investing extractive revenues into education, Nigeria is securing a prosperous future,” he said.
Both executives described the pact as a “covenant with Nigerians”—a promise to ensure that no kobo due to education is lost in opaque bureaucracies or untracked transactions.
“This partnership will outlive both our tenures and serve as a national legacy if sustained,” Dr. Orji concluded.
