Universities Governancie and Inseurity in Nigeria

Abstract

This chapter examines the implications of Nigeria's Tax Reform on public tertiary Institutions. The paper adopts Human Capital Theory, propounded b y Schultz in 1961. This chapter adopts a descriptive research design, utilizing only secondary data. Secondary data include official government publications, including the Tax Reform Act, annual budget reports, and policy briefs from the Federal Inland revenue Service (FIRS) and the Federal Ministry of Education. Other relevant documents such as financial reports of public tertiary institutions, academic journal articles, books, and international organization reports from bodies like UNESCO and the World Bank reviewed. The data is analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings reveal that tax reforms, including the increase of Value Added Tax (VAT) to 7.5% and the Education Tax (E-Tax) t o 2.5%, expanded government revenue and boosted TETfund disbursements, enabling modest Improvements in infrastructure, staff training, and service delivery in universities and polytechnics. However, these gains were constrained b y low budgetary prioritization of education, inflationary pressures, operational inefficiencies, delayed disbursements, and compliance challenges linked to weak administrative capacity and unclear tax regulations. The work concludes that while the Tax Reform Act created opportunities for enhanced funding and institutional performance, its full potential remains unrealized due to structural and policy limitations. The paper recommends increasing education's budget share to meet International benchmarks, strengthening institutional autonomy and administrative capacity, simplifying tax laws, improving accountability mechanisms, and implementing macroeconomic policies to mitigate inflation and operational costs tertiary education