The Federal Government has enrolled over 39,160 university lecturers in 27 universities into the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.
The Director, IPPIS in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Olufehinti Olusegun, gave the figure during an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Friday.
He said the over 39,160 enrolment figure for the 27 universities was what had been compiled as at 5pm on Friday.
He said that contrary to objections raised by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to the IPPIS initiative, many of them have been enrolled into the platform.
Giving a breakdown of the IPPIS enrollment, he said over 3,000 workers had been enrolled at the University of Benin while University of Port Harcourt and Ahmadu Bello University had enrolment figures of about 1,900 and 3,500 workers respectively.
He said that about 500 workers had been enrolled in Maritime University, Nigerian Defence Academy (300 workers), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (4,000), Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (900), Federal University, Wukari (1,900), and Federal University of Technology, Owerri (over 1,000).
Similarly, he said that IPPIS officials had enrolled over 1,000 workers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Alex Ekwueme University (800), Federal University of Technology, Akure (over 600), Federal University, Oye (360), Obafemi Awolowo University (1,200), University of Lagos (2,200) and University of Abuja (850).
In the same vein, about 150 university workers had been enrolled at the Federal University, Lokoja, while Federal University of Technology, Lafia; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi; University of Jos and University of Ilorin have enrolment figures of 600, 650, 1200 and 2,000 respectively.
The IPPIS coordinator said that Federal University of Technology, Minna had enrolment figure of 1,100, University of Ibadan (over 3,000); Federal University, Otuoke (1,300), University of Calabar (2,400) and University of Uyo (1,500).
He said in most of the schools where the exercise was being implemented, the level of turnout from university lecturers had been “impressive”.
He told our correspondent that the figure would keep increasing as the deadline approaches.
The IPPIS enrolment which commenced on November 25 would come to an end on December 7, 2019.
Olusegun said, “The enrolment is ongoing and we are having impressive results. Even the ASUU members are now coming to enrol.”
When asked if the December 7 deadline would be extended, he said this would depend on the areas so far covered and the gaps that exist in the enrolment exercise.
He said, “The timeline for the deadline is tomorrow (Saturday) but in some locations, the enrolment didn’t start until Wednesday. So for those categories, we still have a number of days to conclude the assignment.”
In view of the number of those that have yet to be enrolled, he said some Vice-Chancellors had started sending requests for an extension of the exercise.
“When we are done with the exercise, we will know how many days will be required to complete the process,” he added.
Branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in federal universities across the country, had in separate interviews with The PUNCH, vowed to shun the registration for IPPIS.
The IPPIS platform is an integral part of the Federal Government’s public finance reform initiative, which it said was aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in the management of government payroll.
FUOYE lecturers differ over IPPIS
Meanwhile, lecturers of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State are divided over IPPIS.
While some of them embraced the IPPIS and had started registering for it in line with the directive of the Federal Government, others have refused to be captured in the exercise.
Sources said the FUOYE chapter of ASUU had broken into three factions – ASUU, the Progressive ASUU, and the Neutral ASUU on the issue and could not speak with one voice on whether or not to register for IPPIS.
The source, however, said a large number of lecturers in the institution participated in the IPPIS registration when the team was at FUOYE on Thursday.
The Vice Chairman of the FUOYE branch of ASUU, Dr Habibatu Adubiaro, who disclosed that her members would not participate, said, “We are not involved in this exercise, we are not participating because that is the directive from our national secretariat which we are bound to obey.”
But the convener of Congress of Nigerian Universities Academics, Ayodeji Ige, said his members were registering for IPPIS.
“As far as we are concerned, we do not have problems with Federal Government’s policy on IPPIS,” the CONUA convener said. Punch
