ASUU confirms FG agrees to pay N30bn lecturers allowance

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said its discussions with the Federal Government have produced a positive result with the government agreeing to release N30 billion as a part payment of the earned academic allowances.

ASUU, which confirmed this on Friday in a tweet, however, did not disclose when it would call off its industrial action soon and return to lecture rooms.

But Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said at the end of a meeting between both parties on Friday in Abuja that ASUU agreed to take the offer to its members for consideration and get back to the government on October 21.

He said they had reached an agreement on the payment of N30bn by the end of January 2021 and the balance of N10bn paid in two tranches of May 2021 and February 2022.

In a terse message on its verified Twitter handle, ASUU stated, “Breaking: ASUU strike: FG agrees to pay N30bn earned allowance”.

The academic union had embarked on strike since March over unpaid allowances as well the government’s decision to enroll all lecturers on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Ngige said, “In spite of the economic downturn as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, government has offered N20 billion payable by the end of January 2021.”

The minister also said, “The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) was committed to release N30 billion on or before Nov. 6. The remaining N10 billion would be spread equally over the two tranches to be paid in May 2021 and February 2022 respectively. The OAGF should quickly conclude the verification of figures of the EAA claims so as to clean up the figures from 2014 to 2020.

“To this end, a committee would be constituted by the NUC to develop a template that would capture all the agreed allowances in the 2009 agreement for all the unions in the universities.

“Thereafter, the OAGF and the National University Commission (NUC) are to quickly conclude the verification of the EAA figures, so as to defray the payment from 2014 to 2020. ASUU is to work with the OAGF and NUC to achieve that by the end of December.”

The minister said the process of mainstreaming the EAA into the annual budget using the agreed formula will be activated.

He  said the National Universities Commission (NUC) and ministry of education are to coordinate the activation process immediately and conclude the arrangements by November 6.

Ngige also said the National Assembly had agreed to implement the process of mainstreaming provided the amount involved is sent to parliament as quickly as possible by the ministry of education.

But both parties, however, failed to agree on how the payment would be made to ASUU members during the transitional period of University Transparency Account System (UTAS) tests.

He appealed to ASUU to enroll on IPPIS following the presidential directive that all government workers should be paid via new payment scheme.