Nigeria spends N5bn annually to service IPPIS – ASUU

The Calabar Zone of the Academic Union of Universities on Friday disclosed that Nigeria spends approximately N5bn annually to service the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

The Calabar Zonal Coordinator of ASUU and senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Uyo, Mr Aniekan Brown, said this at a media briefing in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

At the briefing, which had members drawn from the University of Calabar, Abia State University, Cross River State University, University of Uyo and other institutions in the zone, Brown said the IPPIS was being run by a private company in the United States.

He said Nigerians should do away with the mentality that everything that comes from abroad is better.

“Let me shock Nigerians that the database of the IPPIS is not in this country. Those running the IPPIS are private company in the United States of Americans and by the laws of the United States, any data that touches down on the soil of the US after 14 days can be declassified.

“And we are saying that Nigerians who are workers of the Federal Government should mortgage those details to be bound abroad and if anything happens there then nothing goes on here?

An average of N5bn is being wasted every year to service IPPIS. If you look at the last budget, it ranges from N3bn to N10bn, so, you can average that at N5bn. Now, how much could that amount do for a faculty of Computer Engineering today? Check the budgetary allocations and how much goes into servicing the IPPIS platform, then you will know how much Nigeria is wasting,” Brown said.

He added, “Nigeria is paying a whole lot to service that but in this country we have several departments of Computer Science and Computer Engineering. We have those who could develop software.”