Strike: FG to Release N30bn Earned Allowances To ASUU

The Federal Government has agreed to release N30 billion as part payment of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment ,said this at the end of a meeting between the Federal Government and ASUU on Friday in Abuja.

“The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) was committed to release N30 billion on or before Nov. 6. "To this end, a committee would be constituted by NUC to develop a template that would capture all the agreed allowances in the 2009 Agreement for all the Unions in the Universities.

"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 EAA claims so as to clean up the figures from 2014 to 2020.

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,” he said.

He noted that the process of mainstreaming of the EAA into annual budget using the agreed formula shall be activated.

Mr Ngige also revealed that government renegotiating team would be reconstituted on or before Oct. 31, and the renegotiation will be concluded on or before Dec. 31.

On the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the meeting was informed that ASUU has met its timeline regarding the first stage of the initial demonstration of the efficacy of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to government.

The meeting also agreed that if UTAS passes all the integrity test, which involves the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), it will be adopted for the payment of the University staff.

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