FG releases eight-month tools allowance, tightens accreditation, enrols 16,000 in digital academy
By Uji A Iliyasu, Abuja
The Federal Government has released the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) covering January to August 2026 to academic staff in federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja shortly after inaugurating a Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions.
Alausa said the payment was in line with the 2025 Federal Government–Academic Staff Union of Universities (FGN-ASUU) agreement, adding that all affected institutions had been notified to commence payment.
He said the allowance was another indication of President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare of academic staff. Payment to non-academic staff, he added, was being processed and was expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Alausa warned tertiary institutions against manipulating accreditation exercises, threatening that officials who compromise standards could lose their jobs, while private institutions risk losing their licences.
He said the government would no longer tolerate institutions temporarily borrowing academic staff, laboratory equipment, workshop resources or library materials to meet accreditation requirements.
According to him, accreditation must reflect the genuine and sustainable capacity of institutions throughout the year, rather than a temporary arrangement prepared for accreditation visits.
The minister said the government would deploy digital tools, including geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification, to strengthen accreditation and make the process more transparent and difficult to manipulate.
He also directed the committee to develop systems for verifying the authenticity and continuous availability of academic and non-academic staff presented for accreditation.
Alausa expressed concern over illegal admissions into tertiary institutions, saying the practice had affected hundreds of thousands of students.
The committee, chaired by former JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, is expected to review existing accreditation policies, identify loopholes, strengthen staff and resource verification, and improve the accountability of accreditation panels.
In another development, the Federal Ministry of Education announced the enrolment of 16,000 Nigerians into the inaugural cohort of its Digital Training Academy (DTA).
National Coordinator of the Special Projects and Innovation Unit, Adebayo Onibanjo, said the academy received 72,850 applications during its August 17 to September 1 registration window.
He said 19,699 applicants met the qualifying benchmark, while 16,000 were selected for the first cohort.
The academy, implemented under the Nigeria Education Digital Infrastructure programme of the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative, will provide free digital training through Coursera and Pluralsight.
Onibanjo said the inaugural cohort was only the beginning of the academy’s national expansion, with further details expected at its official launch on September 14, 2026.