40% IGR policy: ‘It’s gratifying FG reversed itself’ – Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, has commended the federal government for rescinding its decision on the remittance of 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of universities.

Newspot reported the Federal Government had finally bowed to pressure by suspending the automatic deduction of 40 per cent from the IGR of tertiary institutions.

President Bola Tinubu gave the reversal order on Friday while speaking at the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony at the University of Ibadan (UI).

“The 40 per cent IGR automatic deduction policy stands cancelled. This is not the best time for such policy since our universities are struggling,” he declared.

The former Anambra State governor, in a post on his X handle, urged the government to promptly reorganise and revamp TETFund.

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Obi wrote: “It is gratifying that the FGN has reversed its demand on the 40% IGR from universities. It is ab initio totally inconceivable that grossly underfunded universities would be expected to dole out 40% of their IGR to the FGN.

“Moreover, that demand underlines a lack of attention to the persistent abuse of the TetFund, which is presently not being properly utilised to fund tertiary education as initially envisaged.

“In fact, FGN should promptly reorganise and revamp TETFund to fulfil its statutory role of funding Nigerian public universities, both federal and state-owned, and also in assisting those owned by voluntary agencies.

“The time has come for the government to pay more attention to the financial autonomy of our public universities while fulfilling its statutory financial responsibility to our public tertiary education.”