Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Tuesday met President Muhammadu Buhari, to brief him on the Federal Government-Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) negotiation which is currently ongoing.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that ASUU had commenced strike on February 14 to pressurize the government for the payment of outstanding ₦1.2trillion.
The lecturers are also demanding the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform as the means of paying them their salaries and entitlements. The lecturers have continued to point out inadequacies in the Integrated Personnel Payroll Scheme (IPPIS) which is currently in use.
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Ngige told State House correspondents on Tuesday after meeting the President that ₦92billion has been paid as earned allowances and revitalisation fees.
Recalling the December 2020 agreement reached with ASUU, the minister said the government has fulfilled N40 billion for Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) for ASUU and other unions.
‘₦30billion was also budgeted for revitalization that also was paid late last year.
‘₦22.127billion was agreed to be paid from supplementary budget as Earned Allowances for 2021. That money was also paid last year.’
Ngige reacted to ASUU’s preference for UTAS instead of government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
He confirmed that UTAS developed by universities has been subjected to test by the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
‘In their report, they pointed out the areas of lapses which will not make it usable as presently configured.
‘ASUU wrote back to NITDA to say that some of those observations were not correct’, Ngige said.
The official disclosed that technical teams of NITDA and ASUU would soon meet to jointly test UTAS. Africa Today News, New York that the Federal Government and ASUU leaders met on Tuesday.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK