Why We Owe ABSU Staff – Abia State Government

Abia State government has explained why the staff of Abia State University (ABSU) are yet to be paid, leading to an indefinite strike threat from organized labour.

The Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Alex Otti, Chinedu Ekeke, said this on Monday in a statement.

Ekeke said most of the staff of ABSU use the university’s Microfinance Bank which was not NUBAN compliant.

Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number (NUBAN) is a standardized 10-digit code that uniquely identifies individual bank accounts in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced NUBAN to bring uniformity and improve accuracy in financial transactions.

Ekeke said salary paid to staff using the university’s Microfinance Bank could not go through.

“It’s important to note that Abia State University (ABSU) is not the only tertiary institution in the state. The issues with salary payment are unique to ABSU. The government’s well-considered decision to pay institutions directly made us realize that ABSU Microfinance Bank, an institution operating for over 30 years, was not NUBAN compliant.

“So salaries paid to the staff using the bank simply did not go through. But these are being resolved, and many staff members have already received their salaries. All will be paid between tomorrow and weekend,” Ekeke said.

He added that some staff of the university had double profiles. He said some work as local government staff and at the same time work as ABSU staff.

The Deputy Chief of Staff said resolution was on as Governor Otti mandated payment even as verification go on.

“There were also some staff members who were banking with commercial banks but had issues with their staff verification. Some had double profiles (e.g. being an LGA staff and also being an ABSU staff). This set of people also had issues with salaries.

“The resolution is ongoing. The Governor has insisted that they be paid while the verification correction continues,” he said.

Abia State government added that it inherited a backlog of unpaid salaries to the tune of ₦7 billion for March and April from the previous administration.

“When we took office, we inherited a significant backlog of unpaid salaries (over ₦7 billion for March & April 2023), salary arrears for parastatals (over ₦16 billion), and pension arrears (over ₦40 billion),” the statement published on his X handle read.