The federal government has so far paid over N92 billion as part of the implementation of the agreement reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in December 2020.
Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, who disclosed this in Abuja said the federal government is committed to agreement it signed with the union.
ASUU is currently on one-month strike over the failure by the federal government to meet its demands.
Ngige assured that the federal government is working on measures to resolve the issues which led to the current strike.
He said, “Why I said that the 2020 December agreement we had with ASUU is on course in terms of implementation, is that in that agreement, there is a line that says the federal government should pay N40 billion for earned academic allowances (EAA) for ASUU and other unions. That has been paid,” he said.
“N30 billion was also budgeted or was to be paid for revitalisation. That also was paid late last year.
“N22.127 billion was agreed also in that December agreement, to be paid from the supplementary budget as earned allowances for 2021. That money was also paid last year; it was put in the supplementary budget which was passed around June-July and the money was remitted. So, the government has done that.”
He said the federal government is also working to resolve the controversy surrounding the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform as preferred by university lecturers, instead of the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
