FG Orders Varsities To Submit Salary, Pension Arrears Figures After Releasing N2.3bn

The Federal Government has directed vice chancellors of federal universities to submit detailed figures of all outstanding promotion arrears, salaries, third-party deductions and pension arrears, following the release of N2.3 billion for the payment of promotion backlogs owed to lecturers.

The directive was issued through a memo from the Federal Ministry of Education to the National Universities Commission, signed by the Deputy Director of Universities, J. N. Akpa.

According to the ministry, the information is required to furnish the Nigerian University Pension Management Company with accurate data needed to process pending payments across the system.

Universities were instructed to compile the figures in a tabular Excel format and forward both hard and soft copies to the office of the NUC Executive Secretary.

The move comes just days after the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced that N2.31 billion, representing Batch 8 of outstanding salary and promotion arrears, had been released through the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. He noted that the disbursement aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to addressing long-standing welfare concerns in the tertiary education sector.

Alausa added that the Federal Government is finalising the release of third-party non-statutory deductions and pension remittances, expected to be completed in the coming days. To ensure stability and predictability in the system, he disclosed that the government has approved the full mainstreaming of the Earned Academic Allowance into university staff salaries beginning in 2026.

He also confirmed that funds have been released under the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities initiative, with fresh budgetary provisions secured to sustain it.

The development comes amid renewed concerns from the Academic Staff Union of Universities, which recently suspended a two-week warning strike after interventions from the Nigeria Labour Congress and the National Assembly. ASUU’s outstanding demands include the payment of withheld three-and-a-half months’ salaries, revitalisation funding, implementation of the renegotiated 2009 ASUU–FG agreement, and the settlement of all promotion arrears and cooperative deductions.

The education ministry said its interventions are being carried out “truthfully and in good faith,” as efforts continue to resolve the lingering standoff between the union and the Federal Government.