SATURDAY, 16th October, 2021: The Federal Government has announced that it will soon commence the disbursement of the N30 billion revitalisation funds to all Federal Government Universities.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige made this announcement in his office after a marathon conciliation meeting between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The meeting which was convened by the minister was to evaluate the level of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both parties in December 2020 and the resolutions of the follow-up meeting held on August 2, this year.
While addressing the meeting, Ngige noted that both parties held fruitful deliberations, stressing that the six issues on the agenda were satisfactorily addressed.
He further reaffirmed the commitment of the government to uplifting the standard of Nigerian Universities adding that the government was desirous of making the university system excellent. He further said that the FG was eager to ensure that public universities were fit for learning and research and that the current administration would ensure that the limited resources are used to make a meaningful contribution to the development of the university system.
Speaking on the issue of revitalisation funds for public universities, the minister added that the meeting had received an update from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Federal Ministry of Education, adding that they were happy that the assignment given to them had been done satisfactorily.
According to him, the NUC and the Federal Ministry of Education did their assignment in terms of getting the universities to come and defend the various allocations given to them based on the needs in the universities.
Regarding the issue of Earned Allowances, Ngige said the meeting was equally satisfied with the work that the NUC had done, having compartmentalised the payments based on the universities and the existing unions.
He said the sum of N22.172 billion was provided in the 2021 supplementary budget for earned allowances to all workers in the universities.
He expressed optimism that the payments to the individual universities would commence very soon, as the meeting set a timeline for the payment to begin on or before October 30, 2021.