FG exempts varsities, other tertiary institutions from IPPIS

By Egena Sunday Ode

The Federal Government has approved the exemption of universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Informstion System (IPPIS).
The institutions have also been given the go ahead to recruit their members of staff without having to obtain approval or waiver from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
Minister of Education, Professor Mamman Tahir, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome
of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, on Wednesday.
IPPIS is one of the transformation agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria initiated in 2016 with the aim of creating a centralized database system for Nigerian Public Service with single, accurate source of employee information that provides integration with other business application.
Recall, however, that the university lecturers under the auspices of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had rejected the inclusion of the nation’s universities in the IPPS describing the salary payment platform as a conduit pipe for corruption.
ASUU, therefore, listed the removal of the universities from the IPPS as one of the demands to the Federal Government that orchestrated their protracted industrial action in 2022.
Announcing the Federal Government’s approval of the exemptions of the tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform and from seeking Head of Civil Service’s authority for recruitment, the Minister said it would allow the institutions to deal with salary issues of their staff, as well as recruitment internally in accordance with the laws setting them up.
According to Prof Tahir, FEC took the decision to remove the institutions from the IPPIS system because of its concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
According to him, apart from the opposition to the payment system by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the IPPS issue had proved time consuming for university vice chancellors.
The minister explained that as the tertiary institutions are governed by laws, they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.
He said: “It was a very happy day for the education sector because one of the problems which the vice chancellors, rectors and provosts of colleges of education, those managing the tertiary sector in Nigeria, have been complaining about has been the subscription to the IPPIS.
“You know what IPPIS does, which has made recruitment and many other activities of the university remitting to personnel very difficult. Now today’s Council decided, the President has directed that vice chancellor should no longer…they have been taken out of that service. So this is a very, very important development for the vice chancellors that will allow for efficient management of the universities and tertiary education generally speaking.
“Then secondly, which is connected to that, before now when the tertiary institutions want to make an appointment, they have to write to the Office of the Head of Service for waiver or approval or that sort of thing.
“Today, the Council, through the directive of the President, has exempted them. They don’t have to go to the Office of the Head of Service because it is actually not in their line of supervision.
The IPPIS had been a bone of contention between university lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2020, ASUU, which went on an eight-month strike due to disputes with the Federal Government regarding the payment platform opted for the University Transparency Account System (UTAS).
The IPPIS was introduced by the federal government in October 2006 as part of its reform initiatives to effectively store personnel records and promote transparency and accountability.
Giving further clarity to the approval on IPPIS, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, said “today, the universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the integrated personnel payroll and information system. You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.
“Today, council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward, the universities like the Honorable Minister of Education has said and other tertiary institutions, the polytechnics and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.
“What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPIS”, he said.
The education minister also said council approved the construction of Senate Building at University of Nigeria and funds to National Examination Council (NECO).