To Prevent ASUU Strike, FG pays Lecturers N52.5bn Revitalisation Fund, Earned Allowance

In efforts to avoid the impending ASUU Strike, the Federal Government has paid lecturers a total of N52.5bn for the Revitalisation Fund and Earned Allowance.

According to the report by thisDayLive, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said that he had received confirmation from the Federal Ministry of Finance that funds had been released to the universities for the revitalisation of infrastructure and payment of earned allowances.

In Ngige’s words:

“By yesterday, (Friday) the Accountant General’s Office and the Funds Office of the Federal Ministry of Finance told me that they paid the Earned Allowances to the 38 federal universities and by today (Saturday) all the affected universities would have gotten their monies for workers.

“I have forwarded the position to the ASUU leadership”.

Speaking on the contentious issue of the salary payment platform, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), Ngige said: Just today again, NITDA submitted its report on the assessment conducted on UTAS and it has been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, Accountant General’s Office and IPPIS Office so that they will look at it and sort out other details. Copies of the report have also been forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Education and National Universities Commission (NUC).

“Out of the 500 test points that were used in rating it, we are talking about 50 per cent success rate. So, it’s work-in-progress. The Ministry of Finance and Accountant General’s Office are to study the report and areas that they are not satisfied they will let us know and we’ll get back to NITDA because we have a combined team with the NUC and IPPIS Office,” Ngige added.

Reacting to the fresh ASUU threats on embarking on a nationwide strike, the Minister of Labour said:

“They will tell them what happened. The important thing is that we have kept our promise that the N30 billion revitalisation fund has been paid and that N22.5 billion Earned Allowances have also been paid. So, we look forward to tackling other remaining areas like errors in computation of salaries of some of the staff and of course the question of renegotiation of agreements, which is being handled with the Federal Ministry of Education.”