The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has appealed the ruling of the National Industrial Court directing it call off the seven months old strike pending the determination of the case by the court.

According to court documents filed before the Appeal Court, the lecturers are praying for the stay of execution of the trial court’s judgment. The NIC had ruled in favor of the federal government’s argument that ASUU cannot remain on strike while the matter is in court as it contravenes Section 47 of the Trade Dispute Act.

ASUU had convened an emergency meeting to determine its response to the judgment, which later turned out to be a decision to appeal.

Court documents show that ASUU is asking the Appeal Court for the following:

“1. AN ORDER granting the Applicant leave to appeal against the interlocutory ruling of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria per Honourable Justice P.I. Hamman in SUIT NO: NICN/ABJ/270/2022 between FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA & 1 OR. VS ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES delivered on Wednesday 21st day of September, 2022.

“2. AN ORDER staying execution of the order of this Honourable Court per Honourable Justice P.I. Hamman in SUIT NO: NICN/ABJ/270/2022 between FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA & 1 OR. VS ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES delivered on Wednesday 21st day of September, 2022 pending the hearing and determination of the interlocutory Appeal.

“3. AND ANY OTHER ORDER OR ORDERS this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this case.

“4. AND FURTHER TAKE NOTICE that the appellant/applicant shall at the hearing of this application rely on the affidavit sworn to by Samuel Ameh on behalf of the Applicant.”

This means that the strike, which has crippled academic activities in public universities, will linger as long as the legal showdown.

Both ASUU and the federal government have failed to reach a consensus that will bring an end to the strike. With the impact telling terribly on students, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) had embarked on protest in an attempt to force the federal government to yield to ASUU’s demand.

But with NIC’s ruling, parents and students have urged ASUU to return to classrooms. NANS Zone-E called on the academic union to honor the judgment considering that the strike is a setback to the development of education in Nigeria.

But the federal government had earlier implemented the “no work, no pay” policy, which means that the striking lecturers will not be paid even if they return to work.

The situation has created a standoff between the federal government and ASUU that will only, by the look of things, be settled by the Supreme Court.

Flutterwave has continued to integrate other payment services through partnership, enabling multi-payment options to make its platform useful across the globe.

On Thursday, the Africa’s leading fintech company announced that it has onboarded Google Pay, a mobile payment service developed by Google, as a payment method.

Under the deal, Google Pay will serve as an additional payment option for merchants on Flutterwave for business. In a statement, Flutterwave said this collaboration will offer safe and seamless payments, as well as convenient checkout experiences for customers.

The digital payment giant described the system as a safe, simple, and helpful way to make contactless payments in-store and also payments in apps and on the web. Users store their cards for Google Pay in Google Wallet, a digital wallet app that is available on supported Android smartphones, tablets or watches.

“With this collaboration, Google Pay users in supported countries across the world can pay businesses on Flutterwave across Africa. With an average transaction completion time of three minutes, this integration is slated to reduce the cart abandonment rate for businesses on Flutterwave,” the company said.

This collaboration with Google Pay comes on the heels of Flutterwave’s integration of eNaira, Nigeria’s Central Bank Digital Currency, which the African unicorn announced earlier this month.

Founder and CEO of Flutterwave Olugbenga Agboola, said the partnership with Google Pay will pave the way for the company’s global adoption.

“The continued and rapid growth of Flutterwave is due to our commitment to building a platform with simplified payments for everyone. The GooglePay payment option will attract more international customers and increase the current success rates for businesses on Flutterwave. Integrating with Google pay will allow users across the globe to participate in the booming e-commerce ecosystem in Africa. It will enable us to further fulfill our promise of creating endless possibilities for all,” he said.

Explaining how it works, Agboola outlined these five steps:

1. Get on a Flutterwave-supported website
2. Select what you want to pay for
3. Fill the order form
4. Select Pay with Google Pay as your payment method
5. Complete the payment with your Google Pay details.

“To get paid via Google Pay, Flutterwave merchants must manually opt-in on their dashboard,” he explained.

Flutterwave, as an Africa-focused payment company, is bridging the cross-border payment gap, bringing businesses across the globe close to Africa. In that course, it has processed over 200M transactions worth over $16B to date, serving more than 900,000 businesses, including customers like Uber, Flywire, Booking.com, etc.

Flutterwave has a key advantage of international payment processing in 150 currencies and multiple payment modes including local and international cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers, Barter by Flutterwave etc. This has created huge customer-base for the company in over 34 African countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa.

Powered by this ground-breaking growth that has put its value at $3 billion, Flutterwave recently moved to enlist on Nasdaq Stock Exchange.