The Federal Government has announced that universities and other tertiary institutions will no longer be required to use the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) payment platform.
This decision was made by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) during a cabinet meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Maman, revealed this known to State House Correspondents on Wednesday.
Additionally, the heads of these institutions have been given permission to carry out recruitment exercises without needing approval from the Head of Service of the Federation.
The President has instructed that the Vice Chancellor be removed from the platform that previously caused difficulties in recruitment in order to ensure more efficient management of these educational institutions.
He said: “Simply, the president and the council is just concerned about efficiency of management of the universities, and so it has nothing to do with integrity or options of platforms.
“The president cannot understand why Vice Chancellors should be leaving their duty post and run to Abuja to get staff enlisted on IPPIS when they get recruited.
“The basic concern is that universities are governed by laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects and most respects and the IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in accordance with their act.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, said the exemption of Universities and other tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform is a big relief.
He 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.”