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- FG didn’t budget for purchase of UTAS hardware
Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and employment has revealed that the integrity test being done to ascertain the efficiency of the software of the University transparency and Accountability Solution being put forward by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would take between six and eight months to be completed.
The academic body has been on extended strike in protest against plans by the Federal Government for members of ASUU to enroll on Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) among other issues.
ASUU has instead proposed the use of UTAS as an alternative payment system for its members.
Ngige while speaking with journalists after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential Villa, Abuja, said the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was conducting the integrity test on the software.
According to the minister, though the software was available, there was no hardware to back it up.
The minister added that the university lecturers lacked the needed fund to purchase the necessary hardware for its implementation, even if the software scale through the integrity test by NITDA.
He said that the Federal Government did not make budgetary allocation for the purchase of the UTAS hardware.
He said, “The UTAS, that is the University Transparent System which they brought, is not yet ready.
“It is not fully ready, it is undergoing an integrity test for the software. I am not a computer scientist, but you must also know that you must test the hardware and the integrity test for the software.
“As we speak, ASUU has no hardware and UTAS does not have hardware backing.
“I am waiting for the NITDA’s full report but the preliminary report they gave me, the software integrity test will take them about six to eight weeks and thereafter, we go to the hardware.
“But the big issue is, who will provide the hardware?
“ASUU does not have the finances to do so. Has the government budgeted for it now as we speak? So, that one is a major problem. But we don’t have to dissuade anybody, we don’t have to tell anybody not to carry on, we like local content development, we need our things to be home grown. So, we are really encouraging them.”
This post was written by Obiajulu Joel Nwolu.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.