President Bola Tinubu has halted plans to automatically deduct 40 percent from the internally generated revenue (IGR) of federal universities.

According to Premium Times,  Tahir Mamman, the minister for education, spoke at the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony of the University of Ibadan (UI).

The federal government had earlier said it was ready to implement a 40 percent automatic deduction from the IGR of federal universities and other partially-funded institutions.

But the policy has been criticised as being insensitive by stakeholders in the education sector, including the academic unions.

Mamman, who represented Tinubu at the UI ceremony, admitted that the policy implementation was ill-timed.

He said the president is committed to reforming the education sector as the bedrock for national development.

“The 40 percent IGR automatic deduction policy stands cancelled. This is not the best time for such a policy since our universities are struggling,” the minister said.

Earlier while rejecting the IGR deduction, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), said public universities were not revenue-generating agencies.

The union urged the federal government to remove universities from the category of  agencies required to remit IGR, in the interest of affordability and accessibility of education in the country.

“NEC condemns the directive in its entirety because it would further impoverish and emasculate the Nigeria university system,” the union had said.

The Cable