FEC Removes Public Tertiary Institutions From IPPIS

Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education have been removed from the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS).

The approval for the exemption was granted during the Wednesday meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Prof. Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education, shared this information during a press briefing with State House Correspondents, along with other ministers, following the FEC session, emphasising that this exemption takes effect immediately.

He further highlighted that the FEC recognized the unnecessary burden on Vice Chancellors of Universities, stating that they are not required to disrupt their work by coming to Abuja for the processing of their personnel’s salaries.

The Federal Government introduced the IPPIS  in 2006 as one of its reform initiatives for the effective storage of personnel records, saying the move would improve transparency and accountability.

The IPPIS initiative was also expanded to include all ministries, departments and agencies that draw personnel costs from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would reject the reform and would have a continual 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.”

According to the body, the “benefits of UTAS to the university system (both public and private) cannot be found in any other software in Nigeria today.“

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.

ASUU has held its resolve in rejecting attempts at the FG’s enforcement of IPPIS with industrial actions that disrupted educational activities in 2022

ASUU opted for the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as its desired platform for payment.