Julius Berger Bags TETFUND’S Tax Payer’s Award
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), last week Thursday in Lagos, honoured Nigeria’s leading engineering construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. with an ‘Award of Merit’ for being ‘The top Tax payer organisation in Nigeria’s Construction Sector’.
The event which was the 3rd Edition of TETFund’s Tax Payers Forum had in attendance the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat.
In his address, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Elias Bagoro, said that in trying to fulfil its constitutional roles, the Fund identified the critical mass of tax payers, especially the top ones.
Bogoro further said; “We then came here to appreciate these key tax payers, particularly the ones receiving Awards of Merit today. The 2% education tax is annually remitted by companies through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), to TETFund for allocation and onward disbursement to beneficiary institutions of higher learning across the country”.
On his part, the Lagos state Governor represented by his deputy, Dr. Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat, reinforced the Prof. Bagoro’s voice saying that the event was TETFund’s own way of “encouraging the trust of tax payers” even as he urged the organisation to do more to attract more taxpayers in fulfilment of the amended Act No. 16 of 2011 that established the Fund.
The Chairman of TETFund’s Board of Trustees who presented the award to Julius Berger, noted that the award is “a well-deserved recognition for the company’s patriotism and loyalty to the ideals setting up TETFund.”
He also said; “companies so recognised must not relent in continuing the great job they are doing with their compliant tax remittances.”
Speaking after he received the Award on behalf of Julius Berger, the head of the company’s Tax Department, Muniru Haruna, said; “We feel honoured by TETFund’s recognition of Julius Berger as one of the most consistently compliant and, in fact, highest tax payer in the country’s construction sector. At Julius Berger, we seriously honour our tax obligations as a patriotic duty. We thank and appreciate TETFund for acknowledging our long standing commitment and compliance by this award”.
Officials from the Media Relations Office of Julius Berger Plc also attended the event that also witnessed the presence of the Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, who delivered the keynote address; co-founder of EKO Hospital, Olorogun Sunny Kuku, who represented the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu; and the representatives of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Education and TETFund.
