ABSTRACT

This study evaluates the effect of Education Tax Revenue on the development of Tertiary Education in Nigeria. The Fund was set up to administer and disburse to Federal and State Tertiary educational institutions revenue accruing from 2% Education Tax on the assessable profits of registered companies in Nigeria. The mandate of the Fund is to rehabilitate, restore and consolidate higher educational institutions, and the extent to which these noble goals have been met given the dilapidated state of higher educational institutions in the country has become a recurring subject matter for enquiry.  The purpose of the study is to determine whether a causal link exists between Education Tax Revenue and the developmental interventions by TETFund on Physical infrastructure, Research engagements, Human resource development, Library and laboratory facilities, and Conference attendance in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. Data on education tax revenue and each of the five intervention areas specified for investigation from 1999 to 2018 were collected from the Bulletins of the National Bureau of Statistics, and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, and analyzed using simple regression technique. Results indicate that education tax revenue has made significant and positive impact on physical infrastructure, human resource development and library and laboratory facilities, while interventions in research engagements and conference attendance were not significantly impacted.  This study noted the educational implications of these shortfalls and inadequacies in the light of the mandate and need to advance research and innovation in tertiary institutions, and proposed remedial actions targeted at encouraging government and other stakeholders in the education subsector to prioritize research efforts in tertiary institutions to improve the global visibility of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, their competitiveness in innovation and institutional ranking.