Wednesday, 6 November 2013

FG to Give Varsities N1.1tn in Five years, Strike May Soon End

FG to Give Varsities N1.1tn in Five years, Strike May Soon End 
Details of the  Monday/ Tuesday meeting  between President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of Academic Staff Union  of  Universities have begun to emerge.

The PUNCH  gathered on Tuesday evening that a key component of the agreement reached by the parties was  that the Federal Government  would  inject N1.1tn into public universities in the next five years.

A punch source said that the government team which was led by President Goodluck Jonathan would release   N220bn yearly into the sector beginning from 2014.

The source added, “The meeting should be the longest that we have ever had on this crisis but I can tell you that both parties were frank all through the discussions.The parties also showed commitment towards ending the crisis. The President in particular showed that he was serious about ending the strike and that was why he offered to release over N1tn to the universities in the next five years.The money will be released on a yearly basis at N220bn per annum beginning from 2014. For the outgoing year, the  government will only release N100bn and this has been processed.”

He said that the government, in order to show its commitment to a fresh pact, accepted that “the fund(N1.1tn) should   domiciled at the Central Bank  of Nigeria. “The  money will be released on a quarterly basis to the universities. So, there won’t be any problem about funding the deal,” the source said.

He also hinted that strike will soon be called off.

0 comments:

Post a Comment