The Nigerian Government has approved an additional N25 billion as earned academic allowances for members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The money is aside the N20 billion that was released in 2018 to public universities.
Adamu Adamu, the minister of education said this at his valedictory press conference in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Adamu said: “Let me inform you that the federal government has just approved an additional N25 billion to be shared to beneficiary institutions directly. Last year, the federal government released N20 billion directly to universities. As I speak, all universities have got their share of the N20 billion”.
Adamu disclosed that the current administration inherited an ‘unimplementable agreement’ of N1.3 trillion when it assumed office in 2015.
According to Adamu: “The sad news is that the N200 billion that was released to the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2013 for the universities has not been fully accessed. In specific terms, all the 73 public varsities have accessed the 1st tranche of 50 per cent of the N200 billion.
“For the second tranche of 40 per cent, only 56 institutions have been able to access their funds. The last 10 per cent, representing the third tranche of the N200 billion has not been accessed at all,” he concluded.
ASUU embarked on strike last November over poor funding of public varsities.
One of the reasons for ending the three month old strike in February was an agreement between the government and the union.
According to a statement by Abiodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President in February: “In addition to the N20 billion for 2018, the sum of N25 billion only would be released in April/May 2019, after which government would resume full implementation of the MoU of 2013″.
