The Nigerian government has kick-started the implementation of some components of the agreement reached between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), ahead of the signing ceremony.
The agreement, reached on 23 December 2025, marked the end of a 16-year impasse between the duo.
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The Ministry of Education has scheduled a formal ceremony to sign the agreements for Wednesday, 14 January.
Implementation begins
However, the government has directed relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to begin the implementation of the component relating to the allowances for the academics, according to a letter from the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) seen by PREMIUM TIMES.
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The letter, signed by the Chairperson of the NSIWC, Ekpo Nta, and addressed to MDAs, including the Head of Civil Service, Ministry of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation, said the federal government has approved the reviewed remuneration and directed implementation from 1 January.
According to the letter, the academics are now entitled to increased allowances for Consolidated Academic Tools Allowances (CATA), secretarial allowance for professors and readers, and Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).
While these allowances have existed since 2009, ASUU has constantly accused the government of failing to release them to the academics.
The union had also maintained that it needed to be reviewed upwards since 2012, as agreed in the 2009 agreement.
New remunerations
According to the new agreement, the CATA allowance for the academics ranges from N952,412 annually for Graduate Assistants to N3,790,676 annually for full professors.
Professors are also entitled to N1.74 million annually for secretarial assistance, and N840,000 annually for academics on the readership cadre.
For the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), academics are entitled to allowances for postgraduate supervision, industrial training and teaching practice supervision, honorarium for conducting oral examination, study grants, responsibility allowance and excess workload allowance.
New agreement
The new agreement also included a 40 per cent salary increase for the academics and the establishment of a National Research Council (NRC) with statutory funding of at least one per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Professors are now to earn a pension equivalent to their annual salary at retirement at the age of 70, according to the agreements reached.
ASUU optimistic
PREMIUM TIMES had reported the President of the union, Chris Piwuna, as expressing optimism that the government would honour the agreement this time.
Mr Piwuna, a professor and consultant psychiatrist at the University of Jos Teaching Hospital (JUTH), said the union expects the current administration to follow through with the implementation of the agreement, as against the failure that characterised previous administrations.
“We reached an agreement with the government, and we expect this government to show a difference from previous administrations that had no fidelity to their words,” he had told PREMIUM TIMES.
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