A meeting between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, over a looming strike by the Lecturers has ended
The meeting according to a statement from the Deputy Director Press in the Ministry of Labour was aimed at evaluating the implementation of the Memorandum of Action, MOA, entered into by the parties.
They quoted the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige saying that the meeting evaluated seven key issues, with both parties expressing satisfaction with the implementation stages of what he termed “work in progress.
The minister explained that the National Information Technology Development Agency was directed to expedite action on the integrity test on the University Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS, which if successful, will eliminate the challenges posed by the peculiarities of the university system to the current payment platform, IPPIS.
The Minister further said that the government has also paid the sum of N30Billion as the University Revitalization Fund, as contained in the MOA since January 2021.
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The money according to him is however still lodged with the Central Bank of Nigeria, pending the conclusion of the audit report of the Implementation Committee on the use of previous funds disbursement to universities by the Ministry of Education and the National University Commission.
He further disclosed that apart from the N40B Earned Allowance which the Federal Government has already paid, the Budget Office of the Federation showed evidence that N22B Earned Allowances for the year 2021 are already captured in the 2021 supplementary budget of the federation, and will soon be accessed.
ASUU Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who lead his team expressed satisfaction with the outcome and promised that ASUU will reach out to its members before taken any line of action.
Edited Tunde Orebiyi
