The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the exemption of public tertiary institutions, including universities, from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman Tahir, who disclosed this to newsmen yesterday, after the
week’s FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, also said Council
relieved managements of tertiary institutions of the burden of obtaining approval and waiver from the
Office of the Head of Federal Civil Service for recruitment.
He stressed that the exemption of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform and from seeking Head of
Civil Service’s authority for recruitment would allow the institutions to deal with salary issues of their
staff, as well as recruitment internally.
According to him, FEC took the decision to remove the institutions from the IPPIS system because of its
concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
Tahir, added that 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 were governed by laws, they should be allowed
to exercise their autonomy.
Shedding more light on FEC approval on IPPIS, the 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 clamoring 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.