The Federal Government has agreed to exempt federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education from the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS), a centralised payroll system that was introduced in 2006 to improve transparency and accountability in the public sector.
The decision was announced by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa Abuja. He said the exemption was granted with immediate effect, following the persistent demands and protests by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other academic unions.
According to Prof. Mamman, the FEC also observed that vice chancellors of universities did not need to abandon their work to come to Abuja to process the salaries of their personnel, as the IPPIS required. He said the government would respect the autonomy and peculiarities of the universities and work with them to ensure a smooth and efficient payment system.
The IPPIS initiative was expanded in 2019 to include all ministries, departments and agencies that draw personnel costs from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. However, ASUU rejected the reform and engaged in a long-running dispute with the government over the use of IPPIS for the payment of university lecturers’ entitlements.
ASUU’s Vice President, Chris Piwuna, a strong opponent of IPPIS, accused the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation of interfering 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), a software developed by the union as its preferred platform for payment. According to the union, the “benefits of UTAS to the university system (both public and private) cannot be found in any other software in Nigeria today.”
The government eventually agreed to work with ASUU to modify IPPIS to accommodate the features of UTAS and recognise the uniqueness of the university system. ASUU also suspended its industrial actions that disrupted academic activities in 2022, after reaching an agreement with the government on various issues, including the revitalisation of the universities, the payment of earned academic allowances and the resolution of the IPPIS controversy.
The exemption of the universities from IPPIS is seen as a major concession by the government and a victory for ASUU, who have been fighting for the autonomy and welfare of the universities for decades.
