The Education Tax Fund (ETF) was established as an intervention agency under the Education Tax Act No. 7 of 1993 and amended by Education Tax (Amendment) Act No. 40 0f 1998; with project management to improve the quality of Education in Nigeria.
To enable the ETF achieve the above objectives, the Act imposes a 2 percent (2%) Education Tax on the assessable profit of all registered companies in Nigeria. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is empowered by the Act to assess and collect Education Tax. The Fund administers the tax imposed by the Act, and disburses the amounts to educational institutions at Federal, State and Local Government levels. It also monitors the projects executed with the funds allocated to the beneficiaries.
The mandate of the Fund as is to administer and disburse the amount in the Fund to Federal, State, and Local Government Educational Institutions, including primary and secondary schools, for any other matter ancilliary thereto, but specifically to the following:
(a) Work centres and prototype development; (b) Staff development and conference attendance; (c) Library systems at the different levels of education; (d) Research equipment procurement and maintenance; (e) Higher Education Book Development Fund; (f) Redressing any imbalance in enrolment mix as between the higher educational institutions; (g) Execution of the 9-year compulsory education programme;
ETF ensures that funds generated from education tax are utilized to improve the quality of education in Nigeria without direct contract awarding by:
1. Providing funding for educational facilities and infrastructural development; 2. Promoting creative and innovative approaches to educational learning and services; 3. Stimulating, supporting and enhancing improvement activities in educational foundation areas like Teacher Education, Teaching Practice, Library Development, etc; 4. Championing new literacy-enhancing areas such as scientific, information and technology literacy.
The goals of the ETF include:
1. To continuously improve Education Tax Revenue by ensuring that the tax is collected and made available for ETF intervention programmes. 2. To deliver appropriate and adequate intervention programmes with due regard to the sensitivities of beneficiaries and stakeholders. 3. To promote cutting-edge technologies, ideas and organizational skills in education, and ensure that projects are forward-looking as well as responding to present needs. 4. To ensure successful completion of intervention projects. 5. To form a viable and enduring partnership between the ETF and its stakeholders. 6. To manage Education Tax in a way that is most beneficial to the Nigerian people. 7. To recruit, retain, train and retrain a highly motivated workforce. 8. To plan, undertake research and create reliable databank for improvement of education in Nigeria. 9. To ensure accountability and transparency in all its undertakings.
In the pursuit of its goals the fund has disbursed a total of over N2.23 billion in the last eleven years, between 1999 and 2009. These disbursements were made to Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Monotechnics, State Ministries of Education and State Primary Education Boards. For details on these click the following link: http://www.etf.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=229