The Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Federal Government in yet another meeting on Wednesday failed to resolve the issues around the payment platform for salaries and other benefits.
The ASUU insisted that the N30bn Earned Academic Allowances offered by the Federal Government would be for its members alone, a demand the government team said was not feasible.
It also maintained its stance on receiving the Earned Academic Allowances on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution which it developed as an alternative to the IPPIS.
Briefing journalists after the parley, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige said the university lecturers had earlier demanded N110b for the revitalisation of the university system, adding that the Federal Goverment offered N20b and N30b for earned academic allowances.
The minister said, “This government is not against revitalization but this government says that because of the dire economic situation occasioned by COVID-19, we cannot really pay in the N110b which they are demanding for revitalisation.
“We offered N20b as revitalisation fund. On Earned Academic Allowances, the government offered N30b to all the unions in the universities, making it N50b altogether.
“ASUU is saying that the N30b should be for lecturers alone, irrespective of the fact that there are three other unions. So there is a little problem there. We don’t have any money to offer apart from this N30b.”
Ngige disclosed that the meeting made relative progress on the UTAS as the union submitted their document on the software for evaluation by the NITDA.
