The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has received N189 billion as Education Tax collection (EDT) in 2021.

Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, announced this at its 2021 Education Development Tax (EDT) forum on Tuesday in Jos.

The forum, organised in collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), aimed at improving EDT in the country.

The event tagged “Improving EDT Collection in the Post Pandemic Era”, had participants from various higher institutions of learning and other government organisations.

Bogoro, who was represented by Mr. Irene Erivwo, the Director of Strategic Planning and Development of TETFUND, said that the figures generated in the year under review were far lower compared to previous years.

He, however, explained that the advent of COVID-19 pandemic had grossly affected the revenue generation in the nation, hence the need for deeper collaboration toward scaling up the generation of EDT.

“Over the years, TETFUND has been recording improvement in the education tax collection.

“For example, in 2013, the Fund had an EDT of more than N270 billion and since then FIRS has been striving to achieve the annual EDT targets in spite the obvious challenges.

“In 2021, the fund received an EDT collection of N189 billion, which was considerably lower than the previous years.

“COVID-19 pandemic, no doubt, affected economic activities globally and this had negative effect in the EDT collection for 2021.

“We are equally aware that economic activities were seriously slowed down and, in some cases, halted from March 2020 when lockdown was imposed and movement within the country restricted.

“This affected the performance of industries and companies which invariably affected the EDT collection for 2021,” he said.

TheStar