TheCable

Folasade Ogunsola, vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), says the Treasury Single Account (TSA) is impeding investment opportunities for public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. 

Ogunsola said this during a recent virtual interaction on determining alternative funding sources for the institution.

TSA is a public accounting system which uses a single account or a set of linked government accounts.

It ensures that all revenue receipts and payments are done through a Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

It was proposed in 2012 under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, but its implementation began in September 2015 under former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The initiative was aimed at checkmating cases of multiple accounts operated by government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

Public tertiary institutions, currently facing a funding crisis, are government-funded and were affected by the policy.

During the meeting, Ogunsola said the TSA policy prevents public universities from pooling funds to invest in profitable ventures.

She said public universities are a special kind of MDA with functional peculiarities and must be treated as such.

The vice-chancellor raised concerns over “the invasion of the universities with civil service policies”.

She said the federal government has failed to recognise the difference between universities and the civil service.

The VC said the TSA “prevents universities ability to adequately grow investments”.

Ogunsola recommended that funds be “released quarterly” not annually “so that each institution will chart its course”.

She also added that “universities must be adequately funded, but students must be supported to pay the fees. Irrespective of the status of the university, full tuition fee contributes significantly to the income of the university”.

“We all need to work together to strengthen our universities,” she said.