Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education have been taken off from the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS).
The approval for the exemption was given by The Federal Executive Council at its meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa Abuja.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents alongside other ministers on the outcome of the FEC meeting, and said this takes immediate effect.
According to him FEC also observed that Vice Chancellors of Universities didn’t need to abandon their work to come to Abuja to process the salaries of their personnel.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had been in a tussle with the Federal Government over the continuous use of IPPIS for the payment of university lecturers’ entitlements.
ASUU’s Vice President, Chris Piwuna, a strong proponent for the rejection of IPPIS would cite the autonomy of universities as a key factor, accusing the Office of the Head of Service of meddling in the affairs of the universities.
“We are not accepting that IPPIS is in any shape or form. ASUU will never accept IPPIS on our campuses,” he said.
“Autonomy of Nigerian university is our problem, not the peculiarities in IPPIS…The Office of the Head of Service of the Federation has taken over the work of the university governing councils and vice-chancellors.
“We are asking that they take their hands off the universities.”
ASUU opted for the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as their desired platform for payment.
Yielding to pressure the government granted concessions to ASUU, stating it would work with the union to modify IPPIS to recognise the peculiarities of universities and the features of the lecturer’s preferred platform of payment – the UTAS.