‘Kano govt has paid N1.2bn UBE counterpart fund’

The Kano State government says it has paid over N1.2 billion as its counterpart funding for the Universal Basic Education programme.

Malam Mohammed Garba, the state’s Commissioner for Education, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on Tuesday in Kano.

“The State Executive Council approved the money for immediate payment to the federal government as its counterpart funding for the Universal Basic Education programme. The total amount for the programme for Kano State is over N2.5 billion,” Garba said.

He explained that the state government had already paid its own contribution into the federal government’s account to make up for the total amount required for the programme in the state.

The commissioner said that the money would be used to provide infrastructure, instructional materials and capacity building for the teachers in 2018.

“Kano, being one of the best performing states in UBE programme, is expected to enjoy the same programmes in 2018 as it did in 2015 and 2016. No serious government can afford to ignore the education sector in view of its importance to the socio-economic development,” he said.

Garba, who is a former president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said the administration of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was committed to providing quality education.

He said that this informed the government’s decision to accord the sector top priority attention.

The commissioner further disclosed that the state government had also continued to pay scholarship allowances to overseas students.

He pointed out that some of them have since completed their studies and returned to the country.

“The state government will continue to support students by paying the scholarship allowances to enable them to pursue their studies. We have also paid more than N500 million scholarships to our internal students in two tranches. The payment of the third tranche will begin on Wednesday, January 3,” Garba said.