The Vice-Chancellor, ESUT, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie has disclosed that the Enugu State Government has not increased the University’s subvention for the past two and a half decades

The Vice-Chancellor who stated his in an Interview on the backdrop of the implementation of the ₦80, 000 new minimum wage in the university, noted that the management would not be able to effectively pay the new minimum wage without an upward review in the monthly subvention the school receives from the government.

Prof Okie who acknowledged the management’s readiness to pay, added that the new minimum wage will scale up the wage bill, thus the need for review.

“If you approve new minimum wage, you have to increase subvention. For now, subvention hasn’t been increased for the past 25 years,” the VC said.

He noted that with new programmes being incorporated into the university, new challenges such as staffing would arise as well as the additional salary

“Even with all these new programmes, the subvention is just ₦136 million, and our wage bill is about N440 million.

“The local governments pay N68 million, and if you add that to the state government’s contribution, you get N204 million.

“The last time we checked, they owed us N82 million. Unremitted subvention from the local government hasn’t been updated to know if it has reached N100 million.

“As of May, they owed us over N200 million. We used JAC to ask for the money, and it’s piling up again as debt. In fact, I have to tell you that we received subvention from the state government for November on December 19. If we had waited, we would be paying staff their November salaries on December 20.

“These are the challenges. We are ready to pay the new minimum wage but we also need the state government to review the subvention we are receiving,” the Vice-Chancellor concluded

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The Enugu State Government has stated that it is not in a hurry to make upward adjustment to the subvention it pays to its parent university, the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT.

The State Government rather said that it would not increase ESUT’s subvention in isolation to other state tertiary institutions who also receive government’s financial support.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof Chidiebere Onyia who disclosed this while delivering a lecture at the two-day capacity building training workshop for frontline staff in ESUT, said the state government will need to carry out human capital audit to ascertain the actual number of workers in the state who are adding value.

Speaking on the theme “Leadership and Strategic Planning in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria”, the state government scribe said that despite receiving 40% of its revenue from the federal government, the government is supporting the university with capital projects

“The state government receives 40% of its revenue from the federal allocation. Check the allocation and juxtapose it with current budget, you find out that we have barely 30% left for capital project. We have increased revenue generation by deploying technology to pluck loopholes.

“We are mindful and the VC will tell you, how much the government supports ESUT in capital projects. We are mindful of the fact that there will be a time where we have to review subventions across all institutions, not just ESUT. What we are doing now is to audit our human capital. At local government, we found out that 2000 staff were ghost workers and you could imagine the wage bill since 10 years now.

“By the time we entre December, we would have saved almost ₦2 billion from Local Government wage bill and we will be making ₦270 billion in revenue in a year what past government made in four years.

“We are now doing state verification and found out that the number of staff is two-third of the current staff being paid. We will make the adjustment where we are able to get the right number of people who are working and the value they add so that when we increase, we know that we are increasing money for value delivery not just that we want to increase. So, we are coming there, give us time,” the SSG said in an interview.

In his keynote address, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Aloysius-Michaels Okolie challenged the staff to ensure that the workshop had an impact both in their productivity, work ethics and relationship with subordinates and students.

“Now that you have been trained, you will be blamed” he warned.

How Much Does Enugu State Government Pay As subvention to ESUT?

Investigation by ESUT Monitor shows that the State and local governments currently support the university with ₦204 millon out of its ₦440 million monthly wage bill which is 46%

Each of the 17 local governments pays ₦4 million making a total of ₦68 million while the state government contributes ₦136 million monthly.

The university management is left to source for, each month, the sum of ₦236 million to pay staff salaries and entitlements. As challenging as this situation is, the university management, since inception in April 2022, has consistently and regularly paid staff their salaries.

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