The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universites has made a case for univeristies to be exempted from complying with the Federal Government’s directive to federal universities and partially funded institutions to remit 40 percent of their internally generated revenue (IGR) to the treasury.
The committee’s Chair, Prof. Lilian Salami and Secretary-General, Prof. Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, respectively, made the appeal on Tuesday, while speaking on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Goodmorning Nigeria programme in Abuja.
They explained that federal universities were struggling to meet the initial 25 percent which was being charged, owing to the rising cost of things in the country and that increasing it to 40 percent would be an over-kill.
”We are asking for an exemption on the 40 percent. We are struggling with the 25 percent that was being charged. We are struggling to meet this obligation. So, when you now increase it to 40 percent against the backdrop of the rising cost of things, it means that you are telling somebody to stop operation. So, let us stay action on this. There may be some federal government funded establishments that don’t have the type of operational costs that universities carry. So, you cannot lump tertiary institutions into one pot as the likes of big federal corporations that do not bear the same type of cost”, Prof. Ochefu stated.
On her part, Prof. Salami lamented the way and manner decisions are thrown to universities and disclosed that the body of Vice Chancellors was planning to hold a stakeholders’ meeting to reach an agreement on the issue.
”Most of these decisions are just thrown to the universities . So what we want to do, which ofcourse the CVC has proposed is let us have a round table discusion where all stakeholders would come to an agreement. Like the SG said on the 25 percent, most universities can’t even meet up with that. We’re running around to remit it and now you up it to 40. So, once we get to the round table and discuss ways of assisting the universities, I am sure we may have to jettison even the 25 percent and really see how we can work and get the system running”, she stated.
While responding to a question on whether the universities were thinking out of the box to find innovative ways of enhacing their revenue generation, Prof. Ochefu said, many of them had entered into PPP arangements as another source of revenue for their institutions.
”Most of the sports complex, hotels and conference centres are being done under PPP arrangements. So, it is not as if universities are not on their own trying to see how they can diversify their revenue base. But the fundamentals also need to be noted that these are social enterprises. When you run a social enterprise, your return on investment is not calculated on the basis as when you run a commercial enterprise. If you go to any university’s guest house the rates are cheaper; if go to rent their halls, they are lot more affordable because they are classified as social enterprises. The water produced on their campus compared to what is sold outside is cheaper. Our environment is students and students don’t have money. There is an understanding that this environment like barracks is not an affluent environment so whatever services that you are rendering must be commensurate to your understandinding of that environment”, he pointed out.
