Paladin Education Consult

 POLYTECHNICS NOT REVENUE GENERATING INSTITUTIONS – ASUP

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) on Thursday kicked against what the body views as attempts by the federal government to include Federal Polytechnics as revenue generating institutions.

Shammah Kpanja, president of the body in a statement recently, called on the federal government to exclude all its tertiary institutions, including the Polytechnics in particular from the policy that includes them as part of revenue generating bodies.

Kpanja said the call is borne out of the need to save the institutions and Polytechnics in particular from foreseen capitulation with its severe ripple effect and consequences on staff, students and society at large.

The body also called on the Federal Government to, instead, “devise means of increasing funding to these tertiary institutions as they should be treated as part of the social service sectors in dire need of resuscitation and stability.”

The Union said it was in possession of a finance circular issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance on the 28th of December, 2023 conveying implementation of “Presidential Directives on 50% Automatic Deduction from Internally Generated Revenue of Federal Government Owned Enterprises”.

The circular, according to ASUP, is similar to the one issued in October 2023 where the Federal Government conveyed its plans to commence the deduction of 40% of the “Internally Generated Revenue of partially funded federal government institutions”.

The body noted that the circulars included heads of tertiary institutions established and owned by the Federal Government in the distribution implying that the Federal Tertiary Institutions are included in the Federal Government’s classification of revenue generating agencies/agents of the government.