Education

FG Faults NLC’s Demand for High-Powered Panel on ASUU Strike

Published

3 years ago

April 15, 2022

By Derrick Bangura

Nigeria’s federal government has described the call by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for the setting up of a high-powered committee to resolve the ongoing strike by university lecturers as unwarranted.
The NLC had urged the government to immediately set up a high-powered panel whose target would be to address the grievances of the university workers with a view to ending the 59-day-old strike within 21 days.
However, the federal government said President Muhammadu Buhari has already mandated a team comprising his Chief of Staff, the Ministers of Labour, Education, Finance, Communication and Digital Economy to help resolve the crisis.
The government again appealed to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to immediately call off their prolonged industrial action and return to their students for resumption of academic work in the public universities.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige stated this to journalists on Thursday in his office, shortly after receiving notification letter of his nomination by Sun Newspaper Publishing Limited for the award of ‘Public Service Icon 2021.’
Ngige said the federal government remained unrelenting in its efforts towards addressing all the industrial disputes in the university system, involving ASUU and the other unions.
The minister faulted the demand by the NLC, maintaining that the president had already put in place his own high-powered team.
According to him, everything contained in the December 2020 agreement were religiously executed to the extent that the federal government aggregately paid N92 billion from the 2021 budget to cover the revitalisation funds and Earned Academic Allowances/Earned Allowances for non-teaching staff.
Regarding the renegotiation of conditions of service of the university lecturers, Ngige maintained that it must be guided by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) principle of ability to pay.
Ngige said the former renegotiation committee headed by Prof. Jubril Munzali made a proposal of 200 per cent rise in emoluments of university workers, but the federal government through the Ministry of Education said it cannot pay.
He said the university system and the teaching hospitals consume two thirds of all the emoluments currently paid from the national budget of the country, meaning that an increase for the lecturers would necessitate an upward review of the salaries of allied professionals in the health sector, based on their different salary structures.
“There is no point giving you percentages on paper that nobody can pay. Munzali worked out a percentage which placed the university workers on about 200 per cent pay rise.
“The federal government through the Education Ministry said they cannot pay; the Ministry of Finance said they cannot pay. They came to me and I said nothing is wrong with renegotiation because even if a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is signed, it could be renegotiated.
“The document produced by Munzali was not signed by both ASUU and the federal government. It is a proposal. Manzali’s committee had elapsed. The Education Ministry didn’t act as I wanted. The Minister was away but his lieutenants didn’t do anything for five months, contrary to my expectations.
“The minister has set up another committee headed by Prof. Nimi Briggs. They have been working and I have given them six weeks to come up with a proposal.”
On the payment platform for university lecturers, Ngige reiterated that NITDA informed him that UTAS proposed by ASUU passed user acceptability test but failed integrity and credibility test, which formed the bulwark against hacking.
“NITDA said UTAS failed. ASUU said it didn’t fail. As we were discussing, ASUU went on strike. In the face of this disagreement between ASUU and NITDA, we are talking with NITDA to bend backwards so that there will be a handshake between UTAS and the government certified IPPIS platform. After embarking on strike, ASUU has gone back to what I proposed to them,” he added.
Earlier, the management of the Sun newspaper led by its Managing Director, Onuoha Ukeh described Ngige as a quintessential public servant whose contributions to national development started in his days as a staff of the Ministry of Health where he later retired at the management cadre.

Education

NELFUND Begins Upkeep Payments to Over 3,600 Students After Bank Detail Update

Published

2 weeks ago

July 11, 2025

Matthew Eloyi

NELFUND Disburses Over N20bn in Student Loans, Assures Transparency

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has commenced the disbursement of upkeep payments to students who successfully updated their bank account details from digital wallets to commercial bank accounts.

This was announced in a statement released on Friday in Abuja by the Director of Strategic Communications of the Fund, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.

Oluwatuyi described the development as a significant breakthrough in addressing earlier disbursement delays.

“Over 3,600 students, who previously registered with digital-only banking platforms, have now successfully received their backlog of upkeep payments after updating their details to conventional commercial bank accounts on the NELFUND portal,” she stated.

“We appreciate the patience and understanding of all affected students during this period. Your resilience and cooperation have made this progress possible,” she added.

The NELFUND spokesperson advised students who have yet to update their bank details to raise a support ticket via the official NELFUND portal to request access for the update.

She further urged affected students to report through the IT office of their respective institutions, which would compile and forward all related cases to NELFUND for prompt resolution.

“NELFUND remains committed to ensuring that no eligible student is left behind. This resolution process is part of our broader effort to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and student-centered delivery of our support services,” she said.

Oluwatuyi encouraged students to continue engaging only through official NELFUND channels and to assist their peers who may need help navigating the update process.

She also provided contact options for inquiries, stating that the fund can be reached via email at info@nelf.gov.ng or through its official social media handles: X (formerly Twitter) @nelfund; Instagram @nelfund; and Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND.

Education

NELFUND Urges Institutions to Upload Student Data for Loan Processing

Published

1 month ago

June 18, 2025

Matthew Eloyi

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has issued a directive to all accredited tertiary institutions to verify and upload their students’ data on the newly digitised Student Loan Application System (SLAS).

This was disclosed in a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday by the Director of Strategic Communications at NELFUND, Mrs Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.

According to Oluwatuyi, the SLAS platform has been fully digitised to streamline and accelerate the student loan processing experience for both institutions and applicants.

“With this upgrade, all accredited institutions are now required to request access to SLAS to verify and upload student data related to loan applications,” she said.

She described the move as “a critical step that ensures the timely processing and disbursement of approved student loans.”

Institutions that have not yet been onboarded onto the system, she said, are advised to send an access request to registration@nelf.gov.ng without delay.

“Once granted access, institutions will be able to view a real-time dashboard of their students’ loan applications, verify submitted data, and track the status of each application,” Oluwatuyi explained.

She called on all institutions to take immediate action in the interest of their students, stressing that verification and data upload by institutions are mandatory steps before final approval and disbursement of loans can be completed.

On the students’ side, Oluwatuyi noted that if an application status currently shows “Verified,” it means the application has passed initial checks. However, final approval and disbursement depend on the institutions’ confirmation and data upload.

“Once this process is completed, your status will be updated to ‘Disbursed’ when the payment of your fees has been processed,” she added.

She also encouraged students to reach out to the fund for assistance via email at info@nelf.gov.ng.

Other official communication channels include:

X (formerly Twitter): @nelfund
Instagram: @nelfund
Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND

Education

NUC grants ESUT full accreditation for Law, 7 other programmes

Published

2 months ago

May 21, 2025

Saadatu Sahabo

The National Universities Commission, (NUC), has given full accreditation to the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), for her Law programme.

According to the Public Relations Officer of ESUT, Mr Ikechukwu Ani, this is contained in a letter addressed to the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aloysius Okolie, on Wednesday in Enugu by the NUC.

Ani said that in the letter, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu said the report was contained in the result of the October/November 2024 accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities.

Ani disclosed that other programmes in the institution accredited by the NUC include Master of Science in Business Management; Education Computer Science; Education Physics and Agricultural Engineering.

Other accredited programmes he said were Quantity Surveying; Urban and Regional Planning; and Applied Microbiology.

He said that the letter quoted Section 10 (1) of the Education National Minimum Standard and Establishment of Institutions, Act CAP E3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 as empowering the NUC to lay down minimum academic standards for all academic programmes taught in Nigerian universities.

He said the session also empowers the NUC to accredit such programmes.