Why private varsities should benefit from student loan, TETFund —VC, McPherson University

Vice Chancellor of McPherson University, Professor Francis Adegbaye Igbasan, has given reasons private universities in the country should benefit from the student loan and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention programmes of the Federal Government.

Professor Igbasan recently made this known at the university campus in Seriki Sotayo, Ogun State.

While revealing that the leadership of private universities recently met regarding the student loan, he lamented that “it is not only the student loan that private universities do not enjoy, they do not enjoy TETFund too.”

“It is believed that it is only the rich that send their children to private universities; this is not true. There are many parents here (at McPherson University) who are struggling to meet up with the cost of educating their children,” he said.

He opined that the Federal Government and the Ministry of Education can assist private universities in these trying times by allowing them to be part of TETFund beneficiaries and granting them tax relief.

“We, the private universities, also contribute to the economy of this country. We pay taxes, and the taxes we pay are part of what the TETFund is using. So, there is no reason the Federal Government should exclude private universities from the TETFund arrangement,” he said.

Reacting to the Federal Government’s mandate to public universities to remit 40 percent of their IGR into the coffers of the government, the VC said that such policy is uncalled for and unrealistic.

He revealed that in the last one or two decades, the Federal Government had not released money to federal universities for capital projects, and that these universities rely solely on TETFund.

He revealed that what the Federal Government is giving universities every month is not enough to pay salaries, adding that the running and overhead costs are what the universities are using the IGR for.