From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, has blamed the ongoing salary payment crisis in federal tertiary institutions on the hasty and uncoordinated migration from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
Ogunjimi spoke on Monday in Abuja at a one-day stakeholders’ interactive meeting with vice-chancellors, rectors, provosts, and regulatory bodies of federal tertiary institutions on payroll processing and payments.
The AGF admitted that non-compliance with the technical transition guidelines led to disruptions in salary payments, third-party deductions, and pension remittances, which sparked a wave of complaints from across the education sector.
Since assuming office in March 2025, Ogunjimi said he has been inundated with complaints from Pension Fund Administrators, State Internal Revenue Services, microcredit organisations, and trade unions over non-remittance of statutory deductions and delays in payments.
He explained that, to manage the transition, an Interministerial Technical Committee had earlier been set up to develop a seamless migration framework.
According to him, the committee’s report recommended that the October 2024 payroll be executed using the IPPIS platform.
It also advised that tertiary institution staff accounts be validated and uploaded to the GIFMIS platform by Thursday, October 31, 2024, and that role players within the institutions be granted access to the personnel line on GIFMIS by that same date. Thursday, October 31, 2024, was designated as the final date for enrolment and all payroll-related activities on the IPPIS platform.
Furthermore, the committee proposed that trial payrolls for November and December be prepared and checked by IPPIS but paid through GIFMIS, with a final sign-off from IPPIS to occur by Tuesday, December 31, 2024.
It also called on the Federal Government to settle all outstanding liabilities, including salary arrears, promotion benefits, and third-party deductions, and urged institutions to comply with extant rules and regulations.
“Failure to comply with the recommendation to prepare a trial payroll for the remaining two months (November and December) of the year 2024 along with IPPIS and the abrupt migration to GIFMIS in the last quarter of the year heightened some of the challenges experienced,” he said.
To address the fallout, Ogunjimi revealed that the Office has held multiple meetings with stakeholders, including bursars, and has approved a collaborative training programme with the Association of Bursars of Nigerian Universities to support institutions navigating GIFMIS-related issues.
“Despite all these steps, I still receive catalogues of complaints from the institutions,” the AGF stated.
He noted that this meeting was therefore organised to bring all stakeholders together so that they could collectively address all the associated outstanding issues.
Ogunjimi said that feedback from the meeting will inform the development of the training course content and urged all institutions to fully participate in the programme when scheduled.
Delivering a goodwill message, Auditor-General for the Federation, Dr Shaakaa Chira, commended the AGF for initiating the dialogue, describing it as not only timely but also strategic in addressing some of the most critical issues confronting public financial management in our educational institutions.
Chira listed recurring issues such as overpayment of salaries, irregular employment, non-remittance of statutory deductions, violation of payroll integration procedures, and unauthorised allowances.
“The prevalence of these issues often results in audit queries, surcharges, loss of public funds, and, in some instances, reputational damage to the affected institutions,” he warned.
The Auditor-General emphasised the need for institutions to honestly table operational concerns such as IPPIS integration delays, misclassification of deductions, and third-party remittance timelines.
He also pledged his office’s readiness to work closely with the OAGF, regulatory agencies, and institutions to promote systems improvement and enhanced service delivery, while urging institutions to support reforms that reflect the complexities of Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.