Favour Ishember, Abuja
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from Nigeria’s extractive industries.
The partnership aims to ensure that revenues earned from natural resources are efficiently deployed to promote development, reduce poverty, and advance national aspirations.
The MoU signing ceremony was marked by a presentation of key figures from NEITI’s audited industry reports, which showed that total revenue accruals to TETFund stood at ₦322.99 billion in 2022 and rose significantly to ₦571.01 billion in 2023. Over the past five years, total revenue accruals to TETFund from Education Tax reached approximately ₦1.024 trillion.
NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, emphasized that the partnership is timely and significant, as both organizations are united by a common goal to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of public revenues.
He noted that NEITI’s mandate is to track what is earned, what is paid, and what is remitted into government coffers, while TETFund plays a crucial downstream role in managing and deploying the 2% Education Tax to develop infrastructure, support research, and improve teaching and learning in public tertiary institutions.
The partnership aims to create a value chain of accountability from extraction to education, ensuring that verified data feeds directly into TETFund’s strategic planning, revenue forecasting, and accountability framework.
Dr. Orji emphasized that investing in education is crucial for national development, as it converts finite mineral resources into infinite human capital.
The partnership will ensure timely and prompt remittances through early deployment of evidence-based data, provide real-time information on revenue accruals due to TETFund to guarantee transparency and support the Fund in tracking remittances and utilisation.
It will also foster closer collaboration between government institutions and academia, promote research that is grounded in data, policy that is informed by evidence, and investments that are aligned with national development priorities.
Dr. Orji called for collective responsibility in ensuring that the over ₦1.5 trillion that has accrued to TETFund in just five years is fully accounted for, efficiently deployed, and transparently tracked.
He emphasized that the partnership is a covenant with the Nigerian people, a promise to ensure that Nigeria’s natural resource wealth truly works for every citizen, especially through education.
The partnership between NEITI and TETFund marks a significant step towards promoting transparency and accountability in the management of public revenues. By working together, the two organizations aim to create a brighter future for Nigeria’s education sector and contribute to the country’s overall development.
